


A Present for Keeps

by phoenixreal



Category: Naruto
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe, Brothels, F/F, F/M, Half Demon Naruto, Human/Fox hybrid, Hybrid Rights, M/M, Pervert Uchiha Sasuke, Rape, Rape Recovery, Romance, Sasuke Being an Asshole, Sasuke Has a Heart, Seme Sasuke, Torture, Uke Uzumaki Naruto, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-01-04 16:00:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 30,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1082952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixreal/pseuds/phoenixreal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sasuke comes of age and his brother insists he purchase his first hybrid.  He is not interested until he sees a three tailed fox hybrid that he has to have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. For Sale: Unique and Rare

Sasuke couldn't believe Itachi had drug him along to another of these stupid auctions. They never had anything good. He kept insisting that Sasuke needed a neko because his had become such an integral part of his life. Sasuke couldn't give a flying fuck about the stupid hybrids that were all the rage among the upper class these days. He found them disgusting and distasteful creatures who were mostly programmed to be nothing more than a pet. He hated that. To say the younger Uchiha had morals was a streach, he really didn't, but something about making a human into a pet struck a chord with the raven haired boy. It was a week before his eighteenth birthday, and Itachi had insisted on his present being his own Neko. For fuck's sake, he thought. It was like a damn right of passage these days. It wasn't marriage anymore; it was buying your own personal fuck toy. He sighed and sunk into the seat beside him.

Itachi shook his head as always as the "goods" were begun. Sasuke barely watched until his brother leaned over and whispered in his ear.

"This is your last shot at picking your own. I pick if you don't choose today," he said softly. Sasuke fixed him with a glare and sat up as the row of eight nekos were stood on the stage in a line, to be walked in front of the group and around to the curtained back. They all wore nothing more than what would be considered skimpy underwear so their bodies could be seen by all who viewed them like some chunks of meat before a butcher window.

Everyone was permitted to see what was available before the bidding began, so if there was something they particularly wanted they could hold off and wait. The first one was a female cat, annoying, Sasuke thought. Then there was a male dog, equally annoying. He didn't like fucking mewling and barking. And though they were part human, the dog hybrids could be annoyingly loud, and the cats extremely needy. Another cat, another dog, how boring. Then there was a rabbit, he arched a brow at the white fully cotton tail gracing her back. That was interesting. The next was paraded up, this one a lion hybrid it looked like, apparently the more exotic breeds were being presented at the end. The seventh was a little more exotic, a thickly muscled bear hybrid, a true rarity that had everyone mumbling at the large male.

"And without further ado, the reason most of you are here today, our prize for the day…" he said and the bear turned and left something standing at the stage that made Sasuke straighten up and lean forward. He missed the smirk on his brother's face.

He was short, maybe five foot five inches tall, leanly muscled and tanned skin, but what caught the attention of Sasuke and everyone in the room were the three fluffy fox tails swinging behind him, each one seemingly of independent thought, and the glittering blue animalistic eyes. On his head of perfect golden hair sat a pair of fox ears that twitched and were tipped with snow white, just like the tips of the three fox tails. Unlike the rest, this one was fitted with a collar and cuffs, a chain running from the collar to the cuffs. He growled at the man who came up to drag him back, and a shiver went through Sasuke.

The other auctions had no interest to him. Soon enough the kitsune hybrid was brought back up and the auctioneer grinned.

"And finally today, we have a fierce one for you. Five owners since he was released from the lab five years ago, and none have been able to fully tame him. The touch of demon fox is to blame, no doubt, so he is not for the light at heart," he said and the man holding tightly to the boy's arm was receiving a glare and a snarl, pointed canines looking lethal. "As you can see, he's an absolute beauty of a creature, and if you want the feisty creature, this is one highly recommended. He's never been with an owner that could let him go free, with that wonderful untamed spirit. So be prepared to keep yourself in chains and whips, dear buyers, because this one spends as much time snarling as he does anything else."

Sasuke was entranced by the figure. Sculpted body and muscles, but he could see, even at this distance the scars that crisscrossed him. It was obvious that the boy had been under a whip more than once, and to go through five owners, that was significant. He looked as he saw several of the bidders leave other than those who had already made their purchases. Obviously the description was enough to put them off, but it didn't put the younger Uchiha off in the least, it only made him want that one for himself.

"Is that what you desire, little brother?" Itachi said softly in his ear.

Sasuke nodded fervently. "Yes, it is…"

Itachi didn't hide his grin this time and jumped headfirst into the bidding. To Sasuke's amazement, the bidding kept going higher and higher, and he wondered when his brother would chicken out on it. It was well over a million now. However, when Itachi Uchiha decided he wanted something, he got it. Soon it was him and another bidder that had a sadistic gleam in his eyes. The telltale twitch in his elder brother's eye told Sasuke he was done with the rabble.

"Three point five million," he announced, over shadowing the last bid by nearly a million. Sasuke smirked. His brother wouldn't be outdone. The other man looked at him with a shocked expression.

"Going once, going twice, sold to Itachi Uchiha for three and one half million. You may arrange for pick up after payment has been made. Congratulations to all the winners today, please remain, the rest are dismissed," the auctioneer announced as the kitsune was drug off the stage, glaring at his new master.

Soon they were left alone and Itachi made the arrangements to transfer the money and have his purchase delivered directly to Sasuke's birthday party in one week. Once the arrangements were made, Sasuke only had to wait. There was no way to take possession now, since it was a requirement to be eighteen to own a hybrid. Taking him today would have been a hassel in paperwork, since Itachi would have to take him then transfer him, and everything would be filed twice.

"So, ya got the kit?" a voice said beside him. He turned to see a man with gray hair and a facemask.

"Yeah, what of it?" he asked, eyeing the one eyed man.

"Kakashi is the name, I run the Hidden Leaf Dojo. The kit is good, so if you're interested, bring him by and I'll let you both in for free. I miss him around the dojo," the man said, smiling behind the mask.

"You've worked with him?" Sasuke asked, frowning. "Were you his owner?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No, a friend of mine, Jariya was his first owner. Good man. Taught him to protect himself, which was a blessing and a curse, I guess, considering the next four owners didn't like it."

"If he was such a good man why'd he sell him off?" Sasuke couldn't keep the bite out of the remark.

Kakashi sighed heavily. "Hard to keep a neko when you're dead. Unfortunately, he had debts, and the poor thing was used to pay them off. I wanted to buy him, but I just couldn't afford it. Even had I sold the dojo and everything I owned, there was no way."

Sasuke nodded. That was indeed tough. "I may bring him by to see you then, but it will be next week. My birthday is the day he is to be delivered."

Kakashi nodded. "Ah, well, I was hoping he'd be leaving today. The man who has him now, he's not known for his kindness."

"They won't dare damage the property of an Uchiha, or they'll face my wrath," he said confidently and walked away to his brother. Kakashi turned and left, his only purpose was to see where the kitsune had been sold to. His heart ached at not being able to buy him once again. He'd had a quote on the dojo and all his life savings, but it didn't even amount to half of what the Uchihas had bought the boy for. But better him than that fiendish man who had tried and failed the last three auctions to acquire him. He shivered to think what would befall him if that horrid man had gotten his hands on him.

For Sasuke the week crawled on. The house was buzzing with news that he'd finally decided on his Neko. As if it was just assumed. But he supposed it was, his bastard brother was going to buy one whether he liked it or not. He growled as someone entered the room.

"Sasuke!" the overly cheery pink haired "friend" from school said as she bounced in the room.

"Sakura, what are you doing here?" he said grumpily.

She rolled her eyes. "It's your birthday silly, we're here to party with you! I hear your brother has some big surprise for you today!"

Sasuke looked up, seeing his other friends, Lee, Ino and Neji coming into the room. He sighed. He used the words friends, but they were really just people he tolerated more than everyone else and people that could stand his caustic personality on a daily basis. Sakura, though, seemed sure that one day Sasuke would fall head over heels in love with her. He really should inform her that she had the wrong equipment for him to find her in any way attractive.

"Just a stupid hybrid," he said with a huff.

The group exchanged glances. "He bought you a hybrid? My god, Sasuke, what kind?"

He shrugged looking up as a man entered. He waved him over and took the pile of papers from him. He quickly filled them out and handed them back. The man looked them over and typed into a pad at his waist. A few seconds later, a paper came flittering out and he handed a set of tags to Sasuke.

"I'll microchip him before he's presented to you, the tags must be visible at all times, and if at any time he's found out alone, he can be picked up and you will be fined. Did you have something in particular you want him to wear or should I have his handler choose for you?" the man said, keeping an even face.

Sasuke waved at him. "Just whatever is fine, as long as it isn't what he was in the godforsaken auction in," he muttered, looking over the certificate of ownership.

The man bowed and left the room. Sakura gawked. "It's a boy? I thought you would have got a girl like your brother's cat hybrid?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I liked what I saw, so I chose it. Otherwise Itachi was going to choose, and I'll be damned if I take what that bastard thinks I might like. Besides, I bet I'll have the most fuckin' unique hybrid in the whole town as of today."

He called over a servant and handed him the tags with instructions to attach them to the collar he'd already purchased. He had done that at least on his own. Again, he didn't want anything his dumb brother chose. He looked back at the frowns.

"How much did he cost?" Neji said.

Sasuke thought. "Um, I think Itachi dropped three point five."

"Three point five hundred thousand?" asked Lee, shocked.

"Nah, nothing like that. Million."

He stood up and walked away, straightening his white suit that had the Uchiha symbol etched on the back of the jacket boldly. He heard the murmuring of shock and awe behind him. It was a significant amount of money. The highest priced Nekos ran for maybe two or three hundred thousand. Only the exceedingly rare or one of a kind ran into the millions. He turned back.

"He's one of a kind in case you're wondering," he explained with a smile. "Of course, no less than one of a kind for me."

The others shook their heads and they headed to the party where family and acquaintances were gathering. He hated these events with a passion. He glanced around at the other hybrids that had come to the party with their masters. His brother's cat hybrid was on all fours chasing after a mouse hybrid gleefully. Why anyone would want a fucking mouse hybrid he'd never know. He made idle chatter and then it was time for the cake ceremony which he was bored with before it even started. Finally the masses had been fed cake and the presents were given. He numbly opened gifts, which he was glad to see were more for his new pet than for him. This was actually something he was happy with. No one knew what it was yet, so there were generic gifts for use with any hybrid, and quite a few gift cards to places that catered to hybrids. He would definitely need that for clothing.

A hush settled over the group as everyone was seated and Sasuke was led up onto a podium where a curtained area was set aside. It was a large cage that had been dropped off moments ago. He knew the feisty creature would be inside it, and he had no intention of letting him out at the party. That would just be asking for trouble. The kitsune didn't know him and he certainly didn't know his intentions. He heard the faint rattle of chains from inside the cage and frowned at Itachi who in turn glared at the handler who stood beside the cage impassively.

Itachi cleared his throat. "Since our parents are no longer with us, it is up to me to grand the rite of passage to adulthood for my younger brother. Sasuke and I have had our share of difficutlies along the road, but we have both come out the better. And now, despite his opposition to the initial idea of receiving the honor of his own hybrid on his birthday, he has come around. And in true Uchiha fashion, my brother has chosen perhaps the most challenging hybrid known to man."

Sasuke rolled his eyes at his brother, people in the audience starting to talk among themselves wondering what in the world was under the cover. Most hybrids were presented by hand, very few were presented in a cage to new owners. That alone was odd, but the fact that Itachi was confirming that this case was different was enough to set tongues wagging. Sasuke looked up to see that every hybrid at the party had cornered themselves together in the farthest point away from the cage they could get without leaving the area. He frowned and looked at Itachi.

"Ah, and as a warning, those of you with hybrids, if you haven't noticed, they've moved away from the cage. Please, I suggest you keep them at a distance, and, to be honest keep yourself at a distance. Sasuke and I decided to leave him in his temporary caging until after the party, so please do not ask for him to come out at this time. Our home is new to him, and he is no doubt going to be troubled at first. I have said we are taking on a challenge and I mean that quite seriously. Sasuke has chosen a one of a kind hybrid. Cost his dear brother a lot to get it, but anything to please my little brother," Itachi said with a grin.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Itachi continued. "Without further ado, I present my younger brother his present for his eighteenth birthday."

The handler pulled the sheet off and a loud hiss and growl along with the clinking of chains met the ears of those present. There was a keening from the other hybrids as some of the weaker ones dropped to their fours and transformed into their full animal forms before the creature before them. Sasuke could feel the vein in his head twitch. He was going to seriously kill someone. Perhaps a lot of someones.

He'd been dressed in something more appropriate for a hooker, super short jean shorts that lay below his tails and barely covered his ass and a tight t-shirt that looked way too small. He had broad cuffs on his wrists and ankles, both connected to the collar at his neck. And from what Sasuke could see, he had a black eye and far more bruises on him than he deemed acceptable, including a bright purple hand print on one of his bicep and one on his thigh. His three tails swished back and forth angrily, and his blue gaze flitting around the area and catching the handler's gaze he growled and hissed even louder. The whisker marks on his cheeks were nearly glowing bright red with anger. There was a headband with a closing seal on his forehead. He knew it was used to keep a hybrid from changing to their other form, and his ears were flat against his head. He was standing as much as he could, which was not much with the shackles on his ankles and wrists.

Sasuke walked up to the handler and though he were much taller, towered over him and grabbed him by the shirt. Itachi said nothing, only watched, a grim smile tugging at his lips. It always amused him to see his normally stoic brother get angry. It was always a slow storm.

"What did you do to him?" he growled.

The man's mouth worked. "Ah, he didn't want to do what he was supposed to so…we had to…"

"Didn't my brother pay last week for him?" he continued.

"Ah, yes, yes sir, but possession was for today and so he had to be held with our other hybrids…and he tends to incite them…and…" the man stammered realizing his toes were about to leave the ground in the extremely strong grasp of the young man.

"My brother paid you three and a half fucking million and you couldn't house him separately for one fucking week and keep your goddamned hands off of him?" he growled, getting gasps and whispers among those in the crowd.

The man looked like a fish. "Um, well, it was…well you see…"

"What did you do to him? I already asked that, tell me so I know how much to beat out of you," Sasuke continued.

The man shook his head. "I'm…I'm just his handler for today, I put the chains on him…the rest was before I picked him up today, I swear!"

Sasuke put him down. "Then I won't beat the cost of his injuries out of you. Who do I need to see?"

The man looked around and locked eyes with Itachi and he realized that the older brother was not going to help him at all. "The…the security at the house, he…he's the one that…beat him because he wouldn't let him touch him…and so…you know…it happens with these hybrids like that…" he stopped and looked around nervously. "One of the perks of working with them…"

Sasuke got very serious. "You're telling me some security officer took it upon himself to not only beat my property but decided to do so because he didn't want him to fuck him? And so he did it anyway? To my property?"

The guy looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel in his head, as he nodded furiously. "You…you'll have to talk to the seller, he's the one that arranged everything for th-the auction and the sale and where he would be held until today…"

Sasuke nodded. "And what the _hell_ is he wearing? I didn't buy a fucking prostitute."

The handler swallowed nervously. "Well, it was the most…decent thing his previous owner had for him…I'm sorry I tried to do the best with what I had."

Sasuke snarled. "Give me the fucking keys and get the fuck out of here. If you are really fucking lucky, you'll never see me again. And inform the fucktard of a seller that I'll be seeing him. And if he's smart, whatever asshole took it on himself to fucking rape my purchase is going to be waiting at the police station with a full confession before I find his ass."

The man paled and was gone in a flash. Sasuke stared at the thouroughly confused kitsune in the cage who was watching with wary eyes. He shook his head, pocketing the keys. He moved up and looked at him. He was definitely bruised from what he could see. He shook his head.

"You have a name?" he asked softly, seeing him relax a bit at the tone.

"N-Naruto…" he said, and Sasuke was already in love with his voice. He nodded.

"Not many ask you that do they?" he asked him. The kitsune shook his head. "Okay, look, there's too many hybrids here today, so I'm going to leave you in there for now, can you sit?"

He nodded and eased himself down to sit on the floor of the cage. "Okay, we'll talk after everyone is gone. I'm sure everyone is going to come see you, but no one, I repeat no one will touch you, or I'll rip a fucking arm off, and they all know it, okay?" The kitsune nodded.

As expected everyone made their way to the cage and discussed him. Most talked about him, and few talked to him. He looked around nervously and his tails swished constantly. No one had ever seen a hybrid like him. To say he was unusual was an understatement. Fox hybrids were rare, but to actually have a _demon_ fox hybrid…that was simply unheard of.

Finally, all the guests except for Sasuke's closest friends had left. He headed over to the cage with Sakura, Lee, Neji and Ino. He nodded to him as he approached and he stood up tentatively.

"Okay, Naruto, I'm going to introduce you now to my friends. They'll be around and they're safe to be around, okay? This is Sakura, Lee, Neji, and Ino. They're around here a lot, so if you need anything, you can find them okay?" Sasuke said nodding to him.

"Now, I'm going to take you out, and take those stupid chains off you. You've got to promise me you're not going to try and run away, okay? You know what happens to runaway hybrids, I'm sure…" he received a curt nod and so he unlocked the cage, reaching in for him and pulling him by the chain that held the shackles together. He stumbled, limping slightly.

He set to unhooking the wrist and ankle locks, then unhooked the heavy collar. He stood still for a while, rubbing his wrists and looking around, as though planning an escape route. The high walls set with guards were clearly visible, so it was obvious there was no getting out. And he really didn't want to end up in that place again…

Sakura was standing behind him and he flinched, looking over his shoulder. She shook her head. "I'm sorry, your tails are beautiful," she breathed. "I've never seen anything like that…"

He nodded and continued to examine his surroundings. "Come on, let's show you to your new room," Sasuke said and the kitsune just stared open mouthed. "What's wrong?"

"Master will give me a room?" he said softly, shock lining every word.

Sasuke frowned. "Of course, where else would you sleep?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "I've always slept at the master's feet…in their bed…"

The unspoken expectation of being property was hanging in the air and Sasuke refused to acknowledge it. "Look, I know you've been through hell, five owners in five years sucks…"

"Two years," he said softly. "Four masters in two years."

Sasuke gasped. "What?"

"M-my first master I had for three years when I left the lab with him until he died, and then the others…" he said, still softly. "No one wants me for long, and I'm sure you'll sell me just like they did."

Sasuke swallowed and looked at his gathered friends who were giving him a look saying to comfort the creature. He shook his head. "Nh, get going, you got a room, you need sleep, then tomorrow we're getting you some fuckin' clothes that don't like you raided a hooker's closet."


	2. A Kitsune's Secret

Sakura and Sasuke were rifling through the suitcase of clothes that had come with the hybrid. Sakura wrinkled her nose and held up something that looked like a school girl skirt with a notch cut out of the waistband, apparently for a hybrid's tail.

"Was this bastard a pervert or something?" she said, dropping it into the trash pile, and continued rummaging, automatically tossing the undergarments, both male and female varieties.

Sasuke shook his head. "Most of these nekos, hybrids whatever you want to call them, end up in homes as fucking sex slaves and nothing more."

Ino walked in and exchanged a look with Sakura. "Seriously? How do you know about this anyway?"

"Because I've actually talked to them," Sasuke said, lifting up a decidedly feminine looking lacy shirt. "I've spent a lot of time with them when our 'guests' bring their hybrids with them. Nine out of ten spend their time being raped on a nightly basis and they can't do anything about it because they're nothing more than property. And even the best owners still take advantage of that fact. It's disgusting, they're still part human."

Sakura wasn't sure what to say as she lifted a set of denim shorts that looked to be something a child should wear. If it weren't for the notches and holes for the tails, it wouldn't be apparent that this stuff wasn't something a prostitute would wear. And it made sense.

"Well this guy was a real pervert," Ino said, lifting up another article, this one a maid's dress with a hole cut for the tails. "Half of this stuff is made for girls. If he wanted him to dress like a girl, why didn't he just buy a girl?"

Sasuke snorted. "Because, idiot, they can't feel as powerful over a female. To subdue another male…that's the thrill for these bastards. Then to embarrass and humiliate them into wearing this…shit. Just because they can't say no, and if they do they end up in the hybrid shelters."

"Okay," Sasuke said, shoving the pile into the trash. "We're putting him into something I own, no fucking way are we taking him out in that outfit. Sakura, go through my closet and find him something with drawstrings or something. I'll go get him."

Sasuke knocked lightly on the door, and frowned when he didn't get a response. So he opened it carefully, calling out as he entered. "Naruto?"

He saw the kitsune, curled into a ball at the foot of the bed in his fox form. His three tails curled around the soft red orange fur of his body. The clothes he'd been in were folded on the dresser and his big eyes were closed, and one foxfoot twitched in his sleep. Sasuke couldn't help but smile at the sight. He was cute, especially as a fox. He reached down and put a hand on his back and shook him gently.

The small face lifted and yawned and then he saw Sasuke and he stiffened visibly at the sight, glancing around the room nervously, standing up on the bed.

"Hey, what's wrong, Naruto? We're going to get you some clothes, okay?" Sasuke couldn't believe he was being gentle. He wasn't gentle with anyone. "Let's go, dobe," he said, getting a growl in response.

He led him into the room with the girls and he jumped right onto the bed, sniffing through where the clothes had been, and then looking off the bed into the filled trashcan. He looked up at Sasuke.

"Ah, you are _not_ wearing that junk anymore, dobe. You'll get some decent clothes, but until we get there, you'll have to wear this. Now come on, change so we can get out of here and get something for you to wear," Sasuke said and watched as the kitsune hybrid smoothly morphed into the blond male from yesterday, standing completely nude before him and the two girls.

"Ah," Sakura said, handing him some clothes and turning her back to him. Ino stared with a cocked eybrow.

He tilted his head to the side and wondered what the fuss was about then Sasuke had grabbed his arms and started actually looking at him. His right ankle was swollen and bruised, and there were large bruises across the small of his back and hips. The area where his tail connected with the flesh was red and irritated, and it looked like there were deep gouges of the flesh of his hips. He stared but kept his hands up where he was moved to.

"Sakura, gimme your camera phone, now," he growled.

Sakura still had her back to him. "You aren't taking perverted pictures of…"

"Shut up, Sakura, look at this…" he growled, snatching the phone from her hands as she turned around and gasped.

She looked up at the confused face of the young kitsune. "Oh my god, Naruto, what happened to you?"

Naruto looked down and shrugged. "I'm no good at doing what I'm told," he said softly. "I don't like to be touched. It ends like this. But at least this time I don't have a broken bone…"

Sakura and Sasuke exchanged glances as he quickly snapped pictures of the damage on the body. "You mean this happens to you often?" Ino asked, brow creasing.

"We're created to please our masters. I guess when they made me they forgot that part. I fight too much, and then I get hurt for it. But that's the life we're made to live," he said, watching as Sasuke took a picture of his hands and wrists where they'd been worn raw by the cuffs.

Sasuke reached back and took out the collar he'd bought, but caught the flinch when he brought it close to him. He sighed. "Look, I don't like it any more than you do, dobe, but it has to be. I don't want you ending up in a hybrid shelter if I can help it, okay?"

A visible shiver shook the boy. "Are they that bad?" asked Sakura as Sasuke buckled the soft leather around his neck.

He nodded. "Yeah, they chain you and if you aren't good…they beat you and then you're expected to please them whenever they want…"

Sasuke stepped back to examine the collar. It was soft leather with the Uchiha symbol all the way around it. The tags had silencers on them so they didn't clink together, one was the Uchiha symbol with the owner code on the back, the other was the pet information with Naruto's name and address. The collar would shift with him between forms, making sure no matter what, he could be returned to the Uchihas. And of course, the microchip that had been implanted in his forearm would ensure that as well. He handed him the clothes back, a too big black t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. He pulled them on but his tail was an issue. The three tails were simply too bushy to be put inside his pants, and his pants would ride really low if they put them under his tailbone.

Ino pulled a pair of scissors from her bag and proceeded to make a hole big enough to pass the tails through at which he smiled and wiggled them. He grinned up at his new master.

"Thank you, master!" he said, grinning widely and scratching the back of his head.

"Oi, cut the master, shit, dobe," Sasuke said, walking out of the room, the girls pushing Naruto ahead of them with a grin.

They headed out to Sasuke's favorite car, a hatchback Chevy Malibu. It was four doors, and perfect for taking people with him and going shopping. Sakura took the front seat and Ino helped Naruto buckle into the back, finding a comfortable position around his tails. He watched the outside pass with face pressed to the glass in amazement so much that Sasuke snorted.

"Hey, don't you ever get to go anywhere in a car, dobe?" he asked, glancing up into the mirror then back to the road.

Naruto shook his head. "No, not really, I'm always caged for rides…I never get to see what's outside."

Sasuke hid a smile. Well, at least he was enjoying the ride. Eventually, they found themselves at a large store with a sign that had a reclining Neko cat on it. He started to get out and Sakura handed him the leather leash. He snarled at it.

"Sasuke, you know the laws, if you take him out without one…" she warned.

Naruto had gotten out and was looking around as Sasuke came up holding the leash for him. His eyes widened a bit and he pulled back to the side of the car.

"Look, again, I don't like it, but when we're in public, we have to do it, okay? I'll take it off once we're in the car," he said and snapped the clip into the ring. Naruto nodded, obviously uncomfortable at being leashed.

"You've had a leash before, right?" he asked. Naruto only shook his head.

"Masters don't take me out to places…" he said, frowning.

Sasuke sighed. He should have guessed his greedy, perverted masters wouldn't take him out in public. "Let's get you some good clothes."

So, the four entered the building and as expected, stares followed them, or rather the triple tailed fox. They found their way to the counter.

"Hi, I need to get a wardrobe for my new hybrid," Sasuke said curtly to the salesgirl.

"Oh, good! Welcome, come back to the dressing room, and we'll proceed with choosing some appropriate pieces for your lovely pet," she said with way too much enthusiasm.

Soon, Naruto stood in the center of a circle of mirrors with Sasuke, Ino and Sakura watching. He'd been changed out of his clothes into a pair of tight fitting boxer short underwear with a place for his tail in the back. She came back a bit flustered.

"He's a bit of a challenge, Mr. Uchiha. His tails take up a bit more room than a normal Neko, so we may have to alter your choices unless you choose undertail pieces," she said with a smile.

Sasuke frowned. "Undertail? That shit looks slutty; we'll alter it if we have to."

The lady snickered. "Ah, you possessive owners are so cute. Most who had a lovely hybrid like this would want to flaunt every inch of him!"

He wanted to retort but felt a hand on his arm. He glared at Sakura who shook her head. He growled under his breath. He wouldn't make a scene. This time.

Soon enough, the flustered hybrid was dressed, undressed and redressed. Sasuke had a hard time ignoring the fact she kept putting very girly pieces on him, even a skirt or two. Finally, he'd picked out several pairs of jeans, a nice set of slacks, some shorts, and about a dozen and a half shirts for casual dress and a nice shirt and jacket for events. Which the first of which would be the next night. He glanced down at his feet. They were slightly feral, and he had a feeling custom shoes were in order. He asked the girl and she sent him off to a special store for neko shoe needs.

They found their way to the shoe place and it took forever, it seemed, but finally, they had to go with sandals. Closed shoes just wouldn't do it with his slightly clawed toes. So they found a few sets of sandals and a nice pair for the dress clothes. He settled on a set of tabi to go with the Japanese style sandals he chose for formal attire. He was pleased with himself. Now off to the grooming store. He'd gotten at least three cards for this place, apparently the best grooming and care store for these pets. As soon as he walked in, every eye was on the oblivious Neko who was now wearing a pair of the jeans and a blue t-shirt with his new sandals. He was wide eyed and he tugged relentlessly on the leash that Sasuke held trying to run every direction at once.

"Naruto, stop it," he hissed, pulling on the leash to get his attention. He swallowed and came back to his side, smiling sheepishly.

A sales man came out and greeted them, and recognizing the younger Uchiha nearly bounced with glee. Then his eyes settled on the hybrid and he gasped, walking around him.

"I heard you purchased a one of a kind…but I had no idea…" he said.

"Yeah, yeah, well, what kind of things does he need to take care of himself? I don't know what washing and combing stuff he needs," Sasuke said with a roll of his eyes. Ino and Sakura had escaped and were looking over the things in the shop.

"Hum," he said, reaching out to touch his head, only to get a flinch and a growl. He frowned at the hybrid. "Not very tame, is he?"

Sasuke snorted. "He's fine, just don't grab him outta nowhere. No one likes that shit."

The owner didn't look pleased with that statement. "Really? You'll let him get away with such things? We have a training and punishment section I highly recommend you visit before you leave."

"Hn," was the only response that the man got from the younger Uchiha.

Eventually, he had picked out soaps that were good for his fur as well as his skin, combs and brushes for both of his forms, several toys for his animal form, and a collar charm that Sasuke couldn't deny him (it looked like a spiral fishcake you'd put in ramen, which he discovered was the hybrid's favorite dish, having apparently spent time in Japan). Finally, he gathered up most of his goods and he tugged Naruto to look down the only aisle in the place they hadn't looked, labeled training.

The stiffness that came into the body beside him was enough to know that the hybrid was more than familiar with the items for sale here. Sasuke frowned, fingering a package for a set of shock collars and remotes. Serioulsy? He thought. There were other things he thought would have been better served in a sex shop, from whips and ropes, to shackles and other things he didn't even want to read the packages of. Several books on "hybrid discipline" sat there and the titles alone made Sasuke's head swim. "Taming the Beast: Guidebook to Hybrid Submission for Beginners", "The Willful Neko", "Whip and Crop Techniques for Intermediate Users".

He shook his head and pulled Naruto out of the aisle. It was like they were treated less kindly than real animals. It really and truly sickened him that humans could do such a thing to something like the nekos and hybrids and make them nothing more than beasts. He would never understand it! They could think, they could talk, they had wants, needs, hell they had favorite colors and foods! Unfortunately, Naruto had no idea the real reason behind his master's ire, so he was scared. Usually when his masters got this kind of angry, he was in for a sound beating, even if it wasn't him his master was angry at, so as they sat in the car with the two girls, he couldn't stop the whimper that escaped his lips.

Sakura looked behind her to catch the slight tremble in the hybrid and he smacked Sasuke upside the head. He glared at her. "You're scaring him, teme," she said under her breath.

Sasuke looked back and saw the fear written in the creature's eyes and sighed. "Dobe, I'm not mad at you, okay?"

This did nothing to stop the fear coursing through him. It didn't matter if master was angry at him or someone else. His purpose was to be there for the master no matter what he was told. Even if he did have a hard time answering to his masters. Usually at first, out of fear of the shelter he would be good, but it seemed less than two days he was already going to feel the wrath of his master. He supposed sooner was better than later so he could judge his preference for punishing him.

"Hey, I said I'm not mad at you, didn't you hear me?" Naruto flinched and nodded, his ears flattening against his head as he crossed his arms over his chest. "The hell are you still scared of?" Sasuke asked, turning around fully to look at him.

"When master's angry…it doesn't matter if I'm the cause," he said, dropping his head.

Sasuke felt his jaw clench and looked at Sakura. "Fuck these people and what they do. You want to know what got me worked up? It was the discipline section. Might as well been in a fucking BDSM store."

Sakura nodded. "Why don't we get him home, maybe he can relax?"

Finally they were home and it seemed the hybrid had calmed down, but as soon as they walked in, Hinata, the gray cat hybrid of Itachi's came skittering into the room and nearly knocked Naruto over. Behind her was a dog hybrid with wild brunette hair and white fur around his face.

"Hinata! I think I might love you!" he called, loping around the corner and skidding to a stop seeing the cat hybrid tangled up in someone else's limb and leash.

Naruto wasn't sure what to do, he looked up to find a very pretty cat hybrid lying on top of him, and he scented another one in the room. But just as quickly, the male dog hybrid dropped to all fours and began a throaty growl and Hinata's eyes widened in absolute terror as she scrambled away from the body underneath her, whining low in her throat and careening almost into the dog behind her. Naruto slowly sat up, his tails swishing out from behind him and dropping into a defensive stance.

"Hinata! Kiba!" Itachi's voice called, and he came around the corner. "Oh, brother I thought you'd be out longer, terribly sorry…I just brought Kiba home, a friend for Hinata when I'm gone."

Sasuke looked down at the defensive posture and snorted. "Naruto, get up from there, what's your problem?"

Naruto looked up and Sasuke took a step back reflexively, making both Ino and Sakura look and take him the blood red eyes the kitsune hybrid was sporting. Sasuke looked at his brother who was staring wide eyed as the kitsune turned his gaze back on the others, crawling back away from the other hybrids and muttering under his breath.

"No, no, go away…no…get out…I don't want to lose another master like this…" he practically mewled, shaking his head.

"Kiba, stand down, now!" Itachi ordered and the growling male stopped the rumble in his throat and his ears drooped as he sat slowly on the floor, followed by Hinata who still sat carefully in front of him, her whines stopping as well.

Sasuke kneeled beside the kitsune as he looked up the eyes vivid red and his nose seeming to elongate as he shook his head. "Back…" he muttered and then his eyes started to calm, fizzling back to their normal crystal blue. He heaved a huge breath and fell flat to the floor panting.

"Itachi, what the hell was that? I don't remember that being listed…" Sasuke looked up to see a confused Itachi looking back at him.

Naruto raised his head, tears collecting in his eyes as he spoke. "Sorry, master, sorry…I'm sorry, please don't sell me again…"

"I don't understand why the lab wouldn't have listed something like that sort of aggression, they should have known after he was created, after all…" Itachi said, pulling his phone out. "I'll call his originating lab and find out."

"No!" Naruto said, panicking. "No, you can't call them, please, please, they won't know who I am!"

This brought a curious glance from everyone in the room. Sasuke frowned. "What do you mean, you weren't created in that lab? Where were you created?"

Naruto couldn't see any way out of it. He heaved a choked sob. "I wasn't made in a lab…"

Itachi and Sasuke exchanged glances. "But the records…" Sakura said, kneeling beside him.

Naruto shook his head. "Master Jaraiya had to forge them, so he could bring me back when I was…was a kit…after my human mom…she died…and he saved me…from them…and m-m-my father is a kitsune demon…so…so I'm not a neko at all, I'm a half demon…"

He gasped and placed both hands on his mouth, sure he'd condemned himself to death. But as he looked he had six sets of eyes on him, but to his surprise, no hatred came from them. Only shock and surprise at his revelation.

"P-please don't have m-me destroyed…I don't want to d-die…" he said with a gasp at the admission he'd just made.

Sasuke looked at his brother and read him like he always had. "Naruto, why would you be destroyed?"

"B-because no one wants me as it is…I'm too much trouble…and I can't always control the demon…and I don't know what to do…because I scare myself!" he said, eyes downcast now.

Itachi sighed. "Look what you got us into, little brother."

"I'd expect no less from an Uchiha," a voice behind Itachi said, and Sasuke looked up to see the grey haired man from the auction house, Kakashi had been his name.

Naruto looked up and practically leaped at the grey haired man, yelling out in glee, "Kakashi-sensai!"

There was an oof as the man was tackled by the much smaller male and found himself the victim of being licked all over his face as the animal side kicked in. "Naruto, no licking in this form, remember…"

He sat back and blushed. "Sorry, Kakashi-sensai…I forgot…"

Kakashi sat up, wiping his face. "I saw the Uchihas at the auction so I decided to see if they'd let me come visit you, and I see it came in none too soon a time, huh?"

The kitsune hung his head again. "I'm sorry, but the pup was growling and the kitten landed on top of me…and it just…"

The grey haired man ruffled his hair kindly. "I know, I know. But that's exactly why I'm here. I thought that perhaps the Uchihas would be more receptive to who and what you are, my kitsune."

"And what exactly is that?" Sasuke said, moving forward finally.

Kakashi grinned under the mask. "Why he's the son of Kyuubi, the nine tailed fox king, of course…"


	3. Of Hybrids and Masters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please excuse errors in Chap 1 and 2, both will get a hard edit when I get to five. :)
> 
> I want to thank every one of you that read this.
> 
> However, I do have a favor to ask. I'm looking to get my original Yaoi Novel, On the Training of Doctors, published this year. I would appreciate it if you would help make it a success. My original fiction is more detailed and polished, of course, than my fanfics, and I have both an amazing co author and artist. Please visit goo.gl/VS2QQs or look up On the Training of Doctors on Kickstarter.

****

“Okay, wait a minute, so you’re saying he’s not a lab created hybrid?  Those exist?” Sasuke said with a deep frown.

Kakashi had managed to dislodge the fox kit off his lap and stand.  “They were the first, the children of the demons and humans were the first hybrids.  It was based off their DNA that scientists came to create the nekos and other hybrids of today.”

Naruto sat on the floor cross legged beside him, still embarrassed about the incident before with the dog and cat hybrids.  “My father was the Kyuubi,” Naruto said softly.  “Jiraya saved me but he couldn’t hide me forever.  Without my mom to protect me, I was alone and too young to be left after that snake man killed her and tried to take me away.”

“Snake man?” Itachi asked, leaning back against the wall and ruffling Kiba’s messy hair.

“His name is Orochimaru, and he’s the man you were bidding against at the auction.  He is well aware of what Naruto is, and wishes to use him, for what end, I’m unsure,” Kakashi said, sighing.  “Every time Naruto comes up for auction, he’s there, and it was sheer luck you happened to be there because you were the only one capable of outbidding him.”

Naruto whimpered suddenly.  “He tried to take me from my mother,” Naruto said softly.  “She-she called Jaraiya to come help, and…and he almost didn’t make it…” he said softly.

Kakashi smiled, scratching the pert ears gently.  “Yes, I know, little one.  Almost didn’t make it, I know.  Poor little thing could barely stand when Jiraya came to my dojo with him.  It was hard to get all the things in place.  We did it though.”

Sasuke frowned.  “What does this mean?  For me, now that he belongs to me?” the younger Uchiha said with glare at the way Kakashi was ruffling his hair and how content Naruto seemed to be.

“Well, as long as he only has three tails, you’re pretty fine, and he can control himself,” Kakashi said, realizing that Sasuke was not keen on the way he was acting so familiarly with Naruto.  “Go on back to Sasuke, little one, be a good boy, okay, and maybe you can come to the dojo,” he said firmly, standing up with a grin.

Naruto looked at him with a sad grin then sat down on the floor beside Sasuke’s feet, not looking at anyone.  “What do you mean, when he has three tails?”

Kakashi sighed and crossed his arms.  “When he gets agitated, more tails appear, and the more tails he has, the more demon and less human he becomes.  His natural state is three.  Four and five, he is mostly aware of his surroundings, more than that, he can’t think let alone recognize people around him.”

Naruto tried to ignore the things that were said about him; after all he was used to some things like that.  Still, hearing how dangerous he was made him sad because he knew one day he was going to lose control unless he could find his father to teach him.  He was exhausted though and leaned against Sasuke’s leg and sighed.  The conversation went on, but Naruto faded off to sleep instead.  He had always been really good about tuning out conversations around him.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Things seemed relatively calm for the next three weeks.  Naruto got used to Kiba and Hinata, and actually would play with them now and again, though he tended to stay in fox form more than human form.  He also had a hard time getting used to sleeping in his own room because he was so used to being made sleep at his master’s feet.  The solitude was nice, but at the same time, he wanted Sasuke to pay more attention to him.  He supposed it was better than being forced to do other things for his master every day. 

Then, one morning he woke to find Sasuke in his room packing a bag of his things.  He sat up on his bed and watched.  “Master?” he asked, worried by the action.  Had he sold him?

“Come on, Naruto.  Itachi and I have a meeting and can’t take you.  You’ll have to stay in a boarding village for a week until we get back.  Don’t worry, Hinata and Kiba are going with you too,” he said, snapping Naruto’s collar and leash onto him and pulling him behind him.

Naruto didn’t want to leave the house.  He knew the things that happened at the boarding houses for hybrids.  “M-master, no, no, don’t…”

“Shut up, dobe, you’re going, don’t fuss about it.  You’ll be fine, with as much as they fucking charge,” he muttered, opening the door and shoving Naruto in the back beside Hinata and Kiba who were excitedly going over the brochure that Itachi had given them.

“Naruto, look!” Hinata said, showing him the brochure.  There was a picture of a nice spa where several hybrids were being pampered by the staff.  “We’ll have fun there!  Master Itachi said it is the best one in the area!”

Naruto just couldn’t say anything.  They wouldn’t understand.  They weren’t exotics.  They weren’t rares.  He’d heard stories in the shelters from other rares.  Commons didn’t have a problem; it was the rares and exotics.  He just hoped that this one was different, and that Hinata and Kiba were right and there was nothing bad there.

The place was lavish, and Naruto clung to Sasuke while the three were checked into the place.  Naruto didn’t trust the smiling woman behind the counter.  They always smiled so nicely at the shelters.  The last time he’d shared a room with a bear hybrid.  The things she had gone through when her family boarded her were worse than anything that had happened to Naruto in the shelters.  At least at the shelters, the guards and the doctors were all there were to worry about…

“Dobe, stop this.  Go on,” he said, shoving him into the waiting room before they came down and gave them their rooms.

“Please, Master, don’t leave me here…” he started.

A man in a suit came up behind him and put his hands on Naruto’s shoulders.  “Now, now, come on, this is the most lavish hybrid resort for the entire state.  You will enjoy your stay!” he said, and Naruto felt the pressure being exerted expertly on the nerve in his neck.  No, he thought, as Sasuke left him.  The man leaned forward and whispered in his ear.  “Welcome, pretty pet, you’ll do just fine here,” he muttered and yanked him backward, nearly off his feet and away from Kiba and Hinata.

“Hey!” Hinata called but was stopped by the door that swung shut and locked behind Naruto and the man.

Kiba frowned and looked at her. “What the hell?”

A woman in uniform came and ushered them to a lavishly decorated common room with a lot of other hybrids in various stages of repose.  Some were playing games, others sat and talked, a few swam in the indoor/outdoor pool.  No one answered them when they asked where Naruto had been taken.  Hinata began to worry when several hours passed and they hadn’t seen him.

“Kiba, where did they take him?” she whispered, not wanting to draw attention to their discussion. 

Kiba was about to speak when they heard someone make a strange comment.

“Oh, I’m so glad I’m not a rare,” a tiny mouse hybrid said as she sat down.  She’d just come in, apparently.  Hinata casually moved and sat down opposite of her with Kiba and picked up a magazine.  She was talking to a bunny hybrid with tan ears.

“Oh, I know, the stories they tell, do you think they’re true?” she said, sipping tea.

“I know that my Master used to have a lion hybrid.  He brought her to one of these places and two weeks later when he picked her up she was pregnant!” she said, leaning over in a near whisper.  “Master was furious, ended up suing them for damages, and had the cubs auctioned off as soon as they were born.  He got the money, of course, but poor Ida hung herself in the bathroom when Master told her babies were gone and called her a whore.  She swore she never let anyone touch her, that they’d forced her, but no one believed her, of course.  Who takes the word of a hybrid over the owner of a place like this?” she said under her breath.

The bunny nodded.  “I know, I’ve noticed you don’t ever see any rares or exotics in these places.  It took a while to figure out they took them upstairs and rented them out while they were here.  What master notices when we’ve been used by someone else? I hear they’re very good at trying to keep them from getting impregnated, but accidents happen like the Lioness.”

Hinata gripped Kiba’s hand and stood, leading him in the corner.  “What if…what if they’ve…”

Kiba nodded.  “We’ve got to call Master Sasuke.  But how?” he asked.

Hybrids didn’t have the rights that humans did.  There were no laws that kept people from abusing their hybrids, and even if someone forced themselves on a hybrid, the most that happened was a demand for monetary compensation from the owner.  They were owned creatures; they had no rights at all, no more than a full animal.  No one would take the word of a hybrid over a human.  It just didn’t happen.  Not to mention the fact that they made them wear the collars that kept them from transforming.

Hinata’s face changed. “Wait, Master Itachi, he gave me that emergency tag on my bag.  He said if something happened, I just had to push it.”

Kiba nodded. “Tonight, when we go to bed, we’ll use it,” he said softly.  It would be suspicious if they left the common room before night call.

Later that night, Hinata picked up her bag and turned over the tag that read her name in a digital readout along with Itachi’s information.  She pressed it gently.  It flashed twice and a message appeared.  “What is wrong?” it flashed.  Hinata swallowed and pressed on the buttons, each press making a letter appear.  Slowly she managed to write “Narto trble hlp pls” and there was a beep and it flashed “ok” and went back to flashing her name and Itachi’s information again.  Now they just had to wait.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Naruto just wanted to go home, more than anything.  The pillow under his head was soaked by now from tears and spit and he just wanted to get away from these awful people.  They were right.  This was far worse than the shelters. The door opened again and he winced.  He would have screamed but the ball gag in his mouth stopped most the noises he would have made.

“There, now, be a good boy, I’ve brought you a new friend,” the man in the suit said and Naruto whimpered as he felt someone lift his face and look at him. 

“What a beautiful toy,” the strange man said, stroking his cheek softly.  “You are worth the money, just look at you,” he said, and the door closed as the steward left, the lock clicking behind him.

Naruto’s hands were chained together and locked to the top of the bed with enough play that he could roll to his front or his back.  The man left him on his belly, running his hands down his spine and petting the tails one at a time, agonizingly slow.  He hated the ones like this.  The quicker ones were so much easier to take.  He didn’t know how many had come and gone.  It was a haze in his mind. 

They’d brought him up and told him that he would do as he was told, or they’d give a report of his bad behavior to his owner.  They said they were going to video everything and if anyone asked, he did these things because he wanted to do them, and before he was put in the room, they made him tell a camera that he was not being forced to do anything he didn’t want to do.  Of course, the shock collar they were threatening him with was the reason he said what he was told to say.  It wasn’t the pain he feared, it was losing control of the demon fox. 

He tried to distance his mind, like he always did.  How many times had this happened?  He tried to fight them so many times, and he ended up in the same place.  His kind were things, and no one cared what happened to them.  He’d watched others die from being raped and beaten in the next cage to him.  It didn’t matter, their bodies were dragged away and no one cared because they were animals, not humans. 

He felt him lift his tails and move to slide into him and he started to cry again.  He was glad he was behind him this time.  The last one had put him on his back and when he cried he got angry and punched him, blacking his eye.  The steward didn’t like that.  He said he’d have to tell his owner that he got in a fight.  He was rougher than he started, and he felt his hands digging into his hips.  He’d have bruises for a week.  He’d have to stay in animal form to hide them from Master Sasuke.

He almost didn’t notice when the door slammed open.  He felt the strange man jerk and then he was off him suddenly and he heard something like glass breaking and a huge cacophony and of noise.  He was scared, had he done something wrong?  He jerked when he felt someone touch his face.  To his surprise it was Sasuke that was looking at him with a look of pure, unbridled fury.  Naruto felt his heart drop.  Surely, he would sell him or worse, having him destroyed for doing such things.  He couldn’t help it, he started to panic and tears flowed more rapidly than he could imagine possible and he started to hyperventilate around the gag.

Sasuke had left the night before on the next plane.  He didn’t know, or care, what was going on, but he was going to find out.  Itachi had no idea.  He’d used the place for Hinata several times, and she loved the place.  He stewed about the possibilities on the plane and had spent time researching hybrid boarding places.  What he found was disturbing and the more he read the angrier he got.  Officially, there was nothing to be found.  However, he found Hybrid advocate groups that reported that they often sold “services” to high dollar customers and would often use the more rare and exotic hybrids as some sort of prostitutes while they were in house.  More and more Advocacy groups were claiming that these things were commonplace, and they were pushing for Hybrid Rights.

To say that they were surprised to see him come back early was an understatement, and just the look on their faces when he demanded they bring him Naruto was enough to confirm his suspicions.  He had glanced into the next room and saw both Kiba and Hinata were watching him.  He saw how upset Hinata looked, her gray eyes nearly tearing. 

When he was told that Naruto was in a punishment room, Sasuke lost it and pushed  past him into the private hallway, throwing open every door he came across until he opened this one and saw the head of yellow hair and the fluffed out orange tails as the bastard had his way with _his_ property.  Sasuke was sure the guy would walk funny for several weeks, and when Itachi got back the next day, the entire place would rue the day they tried to take advantage of anything the Uchihas owned.

“Naruto!” he gasped as he watched him completely descend into a total panic.  He imagined his anger wasn’t helping.  He reached around and unhooked the gag first; yanking it out then ripping the ring the cuffs were attached to right from the wall.  Sasuke pulled him up into his arms quickly.  “Please, don’t, stop, why are you upset?  I’m here, I’m here,” he asked, starting to worry as he heaved breaths rapidly.

Sasuke looked up as Itachi came into the room with Kiba and Hinata in tow. Sasuke looked up at his older brother not knowing what to do.  “Sasuke, take him home, I’ll take care of things here.”

Sasuke nodded and grabbed a robe from the table beside the bed and wrapped it around Naruto’s shoulders and picked him up.  Naruto clung to him but still was nearly insensible, muttering random words and sobbing into Sasuke’s neck.  He got into the back of Itachi’s car with him and told the driver to take them home.  He tried to calm the upset kitsune but it didn’t seem that he heard anything he said.  Finally they got home and he lifted him up again, walking quickly up the stairs to his bathroom.  He pulled off the robe and turned on the sunken tub with his foot and stepped down into the pouring hot water with him.

As soon as the warm water touched his back and feet he started and Sasuke struggled to hold him as he tried to scramble away.

“Naruto!  Dobe, stop it!” he said, finally getting him down into the water.  He was shaking still and Sasuke didn’t really know how to handle this at all.  “There, there, you’re fine, see?” he said, sitting him against one side while he grabbed the bottle of soap and squeezed some on a rag.

Naruto looked at him with wide tearful eyes and Sasuke didn’t understand why he was acting so strange.  Sasuke understood what had happened, hell he caught the bastard in the middle of raping him, but he didn’t know why he was so scared of him.  He started to wash his face and hair slowly but when he flinched away from him he stopped.

“What is it?  Why are you looking at me like that?  I’m not fucking going to hurt you, and you know it,” he said, starting to get annoyed.

Naruto’s eyes filled up again instantly and Sasuke winced internally.  He really sucked at this, he thought to himself.

“Master…I’m sorry…I’m sorry…” he muttered, shaking his head.  “I didn’t want to, and they…they made me say that I did, I didn’t I really didn’t you have to believe me, don’t…don’t send me away…I know I’m dirty and used and awful and you should…”

Sasuke put a finger to his lips and sighed.  “Is that what this is about?” Naruto blinked his crystal blue eyes at him slowly.  “You think I’m going to get rid of you because of what those fuckers did to you?”

Naruto nodded, putting his head down.  Sasuke pushed his head up but pushing with his finger under his chin.  “Naruto, how many times has something like this happened?”

Naruto looked at him and shook his head.  “I don’t know…it’s a part of being what I am, I’m…I’m supposed to serve my master and whoever they want me to serve…” he said softly.  “And I’m…I’m an animal so they can do that, I’m not a person,” he said, looking down again.

“The fuck you aren’t a person,” Sasuke said suddenly, making Naruto start again. “Sorry, I’m not mad at you, dobe, I’m mad at myself for not realize where I was sending you, I should have listened when you didn’t want to go.  Have you been in a boarding house like that before?”

Naruto shook his head. “No, I’ve heard stories though, exotics and rares, that they used us like that, b-but I thought maybe it w-wasn’t true…”

Sasuke nodded and sighed deeply.  “No more,” he said, and Naruto looked at him with a confused look.  “No more.  You are a person, even if you’re my person.  No one has any right to touch you without _your_ permission, understand?  Not even me.”

Naruto stared at Sasuke for a long time before he leaned forward and hugged him tightly and whispered, “Thank you, master,” with a deep sigh.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Sir, are you unwell?” the servant asked the master.

“Get out.” The curt reply.  The servant left.

“Lord Orochimaru…” a voice spoke from the couch before the desk.  “You know, if you just keep trying to buy the stupid creature it isn’t going to work.  Why don’t you just take what you want?”

The pale, dark haired man snorted at the man with the vaguely blue hue to his skin and hair.  “Kisame, I’ve tried to avoid that.  He knew how to keep me from getting to him, and knew that I wanted to keep my business above the table.  But I will have that kitsune brat one way or another.”

Kisame stood and stretched.  “Well, we know who has him, it’s the Uchihas.  Why do you need the bastard anyway?”

Orochimaru grinned, which was scary in itself.  “Because I want Kyuubi.  And the only way to lure the demon fox is to use his son.”

“What for, I mean, he abandoned him, what does he care?” Kisame said heading toward the doorway.

Orochimaru smiled.  “I have a feeling he didn’t quite abandon him as much as he would have us believe,” he said, pulling up the videos from the boarding house. 

Itachi Uchiha had shut the place down completely, and the owners were jailed for illegal use of Uchiha property.  He had what he wanted, either way.  He smiled and watched them again.  He would have the brat.  He would be his once and for all.  And then, with control over the wretched creature, he would gain the power of the nine tailed fox demon.


	4. Changing Perspectives

 

Sasuke had managed to get Naruto into his room, but that was it.  He couldn’t get him to go into his own room at all.  He seemed to be unable to relax so Sasuke had ended up sitting on the bed beside him.  Naruto had cried until he fell asleep and Sasuke couldn’t help but feel entirely at fault.  If he had just realized sooner…  He found himself brushing his hand over his head again and again as he slept fitfully beside him.  He didn’t know how to deal with this.  He couldn’t figure out what to do with him.  If he were human, he would be in a hospital or a facility to help him deal with trauma, but they didn’t do that for hybrids.  If he took him somewhere, they’d tell him that if he was mentally defective, to have him destroyed.  The thought sickened him more than he could even think about.

Sasuke pulled out his phone and started looking up some of the people who had been active in these Hybrid Rights circles, and he landed on a page that he thought would help him convince Itachi that there was something seriously wrong with the whole situation.  So far Itachi had dismissed Sasuke’s concerns, stating that he was overreacting, that this was just the way things worked in the world.  Itachi took care of his pets, and he didn’t understand why Sasuke didn’t believe that the people that treated them badly were the minority of hybrid owners.

Sasuke didn’t buy it.  He’d talked to too many, and while they didn’t say so out loud, he knew by looking at their faces and the way their bodies moved that they were hurting inside and out.  Even Itachi’s friends that he claimed were good people, he’d seen the reactions.  If nothing else, Sasuke was observant.  He noted the way when they visited that they would flinch away from someone, or they would look down when someone tried to speak to them.  At worst, they wouldn’t come out of their animal form at all. 

He found something that made him take a breath and think.  He looked down the page and found the contact information and was on his phone within seconds.

“Zabuza speaking, what can I do for you?” came a man’s voice.

Sasuke almost froze before he shook his head out of the dullness that threatened to still his tongue.  “Yeah, um, I found the page you run, um, the Hybrid Rights Alliance, and I wanted to meet with you.”

The man paused.  “I see.  Well, that’s not something I normally do…”

“I really think we should meet,” he said, feeling Naruto’s head nuzzle under his hand and he felt him wake up beside him.

“Look, I just…it is a risk that I can’t take for my family.  I don’t meet up with anyone…” he started.

Just then, Naruto yipped and started to panic, not knowing where he was.  Sasuke nearly dropped the phone.  “Dobe!  Stop, it’s okay, stop!” he said, trying to keep the hybrid’s claws from slicing him open.  “It’s me, just me,” he said and Naruto finally looked up with teary eyes.

“M-master Sasuke, they were there, I saw them, and you didn’t come this time, and…” he whimpered against Sasuke’s leg.

Sasuke put the phone on his ear against his shoulder.  “Nh, come here, Dobe,” he muttered, pulling him in to his lap slowly.  “I’m on the phone,” he muttered before turning his attention to the phone.

“Look, I know what you say, but I think you need to meet with me,” he said into the phone this time.

The other man paused.  “What happened to him?”

Sasuke sighed, running his hand over Naruto’s head and trying to shift to get the phone again.  He was crying against his leg, Sasuke could tell, he felt the warm wet tears against his pants.  “My brother bought him for me.  He…he was scared and beaten and they’d done things to him.  I…I didn’t know, I just thought it was the place he came from.  Then, we had to go out for business, and I left him and my brother’s two hybrids at a boarding house,” he said, feeling the body under his hands flinch.

“Is he rare?” the other man asked quietly.

“He…he’s more than rare, my brother paid 3 and a half million for him.  He’s…he’s like nothing else, and they fucking let people come in and rape him after they forced him to tell a camera that he wanted them to do it to him, and I can’t…I can’t believe that this is how anyone gets treated and I can’t stop it by myself,” he said, chewing the inside of his lip thoughtfully.

There was a startled gasp.  “For that much…what…what breed is he?”

“He’s a demon fox,” Sasuke said, threading fingers through the blond hair.  “He’s not lab created either.”

Naruto looked up with frightened eyes at Sasuke.  “What…” the man said on the other end.

“Look, just show up at my house.  Bring whatever stuff you have about what goes on, all that stuff from the webpage, I need my brother to see it, to understand, so we can do something,” Sasuke said, feeling Naruto nuzzle into his lap further, burying his face in Sasuke’s stomach.

“What’s the address?” he said quietly.

“The Uchiha mansion,” he said and hung up before the other man had a chance to respond.

Naruto looked up and gripped Sasuke’s waist harder, his eyes still wet.  “M-master?  Who was that?”

Sasuke sighed, and bit back a comment that it wasn’t important, but he instead smiled at him.  “It was someone who is going to help us stop this stuff from happening.”

“This stuff?” Naruto asked, moving to sit up and slide more against Sasuke’s body. 

“What they did at the shelter to you, what they did at that boarding house, all of this, it’s wrong.  And it needs to stop,” he said, adjusting to lean back and let the smaller hybrid put his head in the hollow of his shoulder.

“I don’t understand, we’re animals, we’re not people, so they can…” Naruto started.

“No,” Sasuke said loudly, nearly making Naruto jump out of his grip.  “Sorry,” Sasuke said.  “I’m no good at this stuff, okay, but I know that you are far more than an animal, Naruto, and you deserve to be treated as well as any person ever has been.”

Naruto didn’t know what to think as he looked at Sasuke and felt for the first time since Jiraya had taken him that he was safe.  He nodded and put his head on Sasuke’s chest and listened to his heartbeat and breath.  He thought that he might actually care about someone again, and it felt strange.  He hoped it would last, but he was frightened that it wouldn’t.  He wasn’t a normal hybrid.  And eventually, he’d lose control of the demon.  He was scared that when that happened Sasuke wouldn’t want to be with him anymore.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Zabuzu Momochi stood in awe outside the gates to the mansion.  He had seen it from the distance, of course, everyone had, but you had to be buzzed into the grounds to even get close enough to see how positively enormous the place was.  Of course, the Uchiha family nearly owned the city of Leaf Valley.  It was a relatively large city, however, it was run by old blood.  The Uchiha family had essentially helped found it, and had started as the sole business in the area in the early 1600s.  Since then, the small family business that sold lenses for glasses, binoculars, monocles, and spy glasses had become a mutli-national powerhouse of advanced optic technology and biotechnology research and development.  Sharingan Associates brought millions of revenue to Leave Valley, and there had been several Uchiha family members that had been city council members or mayor of the city.  Currently, Itachi chose to merely sit on the city council as a member.   However, everyone knew that if the man ever ran for an official office, there would be no contest.

So now, Zabuzu stood in front of the massive ornate gates after being shuttled down from the entrance to the grounds on a small cart by a driver.  He walked up to the screen at the gate and pushed the buzzer.

“Can I help you?” came the voice of a young sounding boy.

“Um, yes, I…uh…I was told to come see…uh…someone…here about a hybrid?” he said nervously, shifting the laptop bag he carried with his digital and physical files from one shoulder to the other.

“Who?” queiried the boy.

Zabuzu chewed his lip.  “I don’t know, he called me, sounded young…?” he said.

“He didn’t give you any other information than to come here?” the boy said.

“No, um, at the other gate they said they’d been informed I was coming…” he said, nervously, looking around because the uniformed security officer in the little shed was looking at him.

There was a long sigh.  “Sasuke,” he muttered.  “Enter.  I’ll have the young master meet you in the conference room.”

The gate buzzed and a doorway sized piece swung in.  Zabuzu felt a jolt as he walked through it and knew he’d been scanned for weapons.  Of course, it was the Uchihas, their scanning devices were the highest caliber on their own property.  He paused, glancing around the immaculately landscaped yard and the massive mansion.  There were tall columns of swirled marble framing the doorway that went up all three stories of the house and held up an overhanging above the darker marble steps leading up to an ornate wooden door.  As he got close, it opened and a young man of perhaps thirteen or fourteen nodded to him and motioned him into the foyer.

“Master Sasuke is waiting for you,” he said, leading him from the foyer into a large open room to the right where the younger of the Uchiha brothers was arguing with someone under the large table.

“Dobe, get your ass up here,” Sasuke growled under the table.  “Stop that!” he snapped and looked up at the other man.

Sasuke gave the man an appraising look, running a hand over his head as he stared at him.  “Zabuzu Momochi, correct?”

Zabuzu nodded.  “Um, yes, sir,” he stammered not sure how to address the younger Uchiha. 

Even as confident as he was, Zabuzu was in unknown territory.  This was different than anything he’d done before because this time, there was more than he could imagine at state.  If things went well here, and now, he, Reiko, and Haku could stop running.  They could actually find a way to be happy and free together. 

“Nh, don’t sir me,” Sasuke said with a sigh, scratching the back of his neck before he disappeared under the table and reappeared with a struggling form in his arms.

Zabuzu blinked and moved around to get closer to the blond hybrid.  “He’s…amazing…” he breathed, kneeling in front of the seated Sasuke and reaching a hand out to put on the wriggling form.  “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, pulling the scarf down from his face.

Naruto turned and fixed his crystal blue eyes on the new person and stilled from trying to push Sasuke’s arms off him.  He was just wanting to go away, and he didn’t want to see any strange people.  He’d had enough people lately.  He wanted to hide in Sasuke’s bedroom, in his fox form if he had to, and stay there.  He knew he couldn’t because Sasuke was his master and he had to do what he said because he’d end up in the shelter or destroyed if he didn’t listen.  He still hadn’t figured out that Sasuke wasn’t like anyone else he’d been with.  His tails swished franticly, though, the only indication of his frantic state.

“Dobe, for fuck’s sake,” Sasuke growled again, pulling him to sit flat on his lap.  “Stop it!”

Naruto whimpered and looked down at his hands trying to stay still.  He jerked when the man with scarf tried to touch him, though, and fixed his eyes on him.  Most of Naruto’s bruises had turned a bright reddish purple.  His face especially looked bad where he’d had his cheekbone cracked.  Because of the sheer amount of bruising, Sasuke had tried to dress him lightly.  It seemed like at first, he might not have been manhandled that badly, but after a few hours at home, the scope of how roughly they’d treated him at the boarding house became apparently.  It seemed l like new bruises would appear every time Sasuke got a good look at him.  Naruto’s wrists were rubbed completely raw and his face was bruised around his mouth from how tightly they’d gagged him.  That didn’t even touch the bruising on his back, hips and thighs. 

Sasuke had put him in a loose wrap that feel to the middle of his thighs, hoping that the man that was coming to see him today would see and understand how serious Sasuke was.  He wanted this guy to know that he was more than angry.

“You poor thing,” Zabuzu said, glancing over him.  “This happened at that boarding house?”

Sasuke nodded.  “Well, most of it.  Some he hadn’t really healed from when we bought him after those fucking bastards at the auction house beat the shit out of him,” he growled, feeling Naruto tense under his hands.  “Stop, please, I’m not mad at you, Dobe,” Sasuke muttered, moving one hand to rub Naruto’s back.

Zabuzu nodded, standing.  “I…I wasn’t sure how to react to your call.”

“Nh, no one likes me, so whatever.  But this…fuck this, no one gets to be treated like this,” Sasuke said, feeling Naruto finally start to become less tense and turning into him finally, putting his head on Sasuke’s shoulder and looking at Zabuzu now and then.

Zabuzu sat down and pulled out his computer and glanced at Sasuke.  He said no one.  He hadn’t called him an animal.  He hadn’t called him a pet.  He hadn’t called him a hybrid, even.  Maybe, just maybe this would work…

“So, tell me, Sasuke, um, why did you call me?  I mean, I understand that you were upset with how this house treated him, but considering that I heard there was a boarding house that mysteriously shut down yesterday without notice, I’d assume you and your brother took care of those people…” Zabuzu said, wondering exactly how far Sasuke was willing to go with this.

Sasuke moved Naruto a bit and sighed.  “First I was pissed off that anyone would fuck with Uchiha property, I mean, my idiot brother paid three and a half million for him to show up with bruises all over him and shit.  But I took care of that.  That fucker won’t walk right for a month yet,” Sasuke muttered, threading his fingers through Naruto’s blonde hair and pausing to scratch around the pert fox ears.  “Then, I didn’t listen to him.  He fucking begged me not to take him there, and I told him to stop being stupid, and then…” 

Naruto looked up.  “M-master, you didn’t…you didn’t know what they did…I just…I just knew I heard from others…it might not have been that way…”

Sasuke frowned and looked down at him.  “You didn’t tell me how awful every single person treated you, Dobe. You didn’t tell me how horrible every day was.”

Naruto looked over at the other man.  “It’s just the way it is,” he whispered, putting his head back in Sasuke’s neck and sighing.

“Well, it fucking sucks, and I’m not going to live anywhere where this shit happens to a living, breathing, fucking sentient _person_.  I don’t care if you have fucking fox ears and three tails, you’re still a person,” Sasuke said, and Zabuzu saw Sasuke’s grip tighten on Naruto’s body as he spoke. 

“Well, I think that…” Zabuzu began.

“Sasuke, what are you doing…?” came Itachi’s voice as he came into the conference room.  “We have a visitor?” he asked, turning to Sasuke.

Sasuke glared at Itachi.  “Yes, we fucking have a visitor.  Sit down and listen to him and if he doesn’t fucking change your mind, then I’ll leave you the hell alone about the hybrid stuff,” he said as the Hinata and Kiba came running into the room, both in animal form and came skidding to a halt and stared at Naruto.  Of course, they sensed Naruto’s discomfort.

Itachi sighed.  “Little brother…I don’t have time for this nonsense…”

“Make time, sit down, dammit, Itachi,” Sasuke growled out and glared at him. 

Itachi started to respond and shook his head, sitting down beside Sasuke and across from Zabuzu.  “I’m Itachi Uchiha, pleased to meet you…?” he asked.

“Um, Zabuzu Momochi,” he said, nodding.  “Um, Sasuke here asked me to come talk to him, I didn’t…I didn’t realize I’d be talking to you as well…”

“Mr. Momochi, I don’t have all day, obviously my little brother thinks you can influence my decision to remain neutral in the issue of hybrid rights that he is pushing me to become involved with,” he said, sighing.

“Ah, okay, well, I’ll make this as brief as I can,” he said, and pulled out a file folder and passed it over to the two brothers.  “This is Haku.  Haku is a rabbit breed hybrid, bred to be a courtesan.  He was to be used as a companion, both in physical sense, but also trained and educated to be an appropriate consort in public.  A sort of escort, with intelligence and grace.  This was the initial breeder advertisement for him,” he said.  The photo was of a beautifully dressed male rabbit hybrid, soft faced and gentle looking.  His puff of a tail sat peeking through the back of the long silver and gray robes he wore.

Itachi nodded, having seen this sort of advertisement before.  The market for courtesan and consort companions among the wealthy was high.  Having a hybrid was a mark of distinction, especially one of great beauty and grace.

“I was a solider, special forces, and I saw a lot of things along the way,” Zabuzu said, holding another folder in his hands against his chest.  “I got hired by this man named Gato.  He wanted me as a guard for a little ‘expedition’ he said.  No big deal, I’d been a mercenary since I left the real military.  I thought I could see death, dismemberment, horrors that most people can’t imagine, and not flinch.  I was wrong.”

Itachi frowned and listened even more intently.  Naruto’s ears had turned toward him and his whole attention was focused, it seemed.  Zabuzu continued.  “At first, I thought it was a hunt or something.  They had dogs, viscious dogs, and a few dog hybrids, but they were feral, like they had nothing human left in them, you know, and there were cages, but I couldn’t see in them.  Gato told everyone to get ready and all these men with dogs and guns and all sorts of weapons were gathering.  Gato told me to make sure no one broke into the area, as it was fenced in and private.  I didn’t get what was going on yet, and then as I stood there, all these cages opened and about twenty young hybrids ran out of them, and I realized the cages had been electrified to make them come out of them, and that just seemed wrong, but I didn’t know…”

Zabuzu grit his teeth together.  “The men stood there talking around an hour after they forced them out.  Then, they let these dogs go and these hybrids, all of them rabbits, mice, you know, prey animal hybrids, they were still out there, running, scattered throughout the forested area.  The men were screaming running after them and I thought they were catching them, but no.  There was a little female mouse hybrid, she ran toward me where I standing by the fence, and I couldn’t believe it as these two dogs almost as big as she was, just leapt on her and literally ripped her in half between them.”

Itachi’s brows furrowed and he glanced at Sasuke who wore a disgusted look.  “But that wasn’t the worst,” Zabuzu said, looking away, and sliding over the next folder.  “This wasn’t the hunt I’m talking about, but these are images that I captured with hidden cameras in similar area,” he said.

Itachi opened the folder and blinked with a shocked look on his face.  “Haku, poor Haku…” Zabuzu said, sighing.  “I ran, through the forest, and I found they’d brought him down, and one of these men had taken a spear and staked his arms to the ground.  Another was…was…he was raping him, and while he was doing it, the other one had this scourge, you know a whip with the tails but it has barbs on it, and he was flaying the flesh off his back, laughing as this beautiful creature screamed in agony.  There was blood everywhere, I couldn’t…I didn’t think.  I don’t remember even killing the two men. I came to my senses outside a military base where I knew the doctors, holding this half dead hybrid in my arms and crying,” he said, sighing.  “I hadn’t cried in years, not since my wife and I got married.”

“Gato, you see, he bought pretty ‘rejected’ hybrids for these hunts.  Of course, none lived, but before they died they suffered.  These bastards would get aroused by the hunt, and they’d do truly unspeakable things.  I…I wish I could say I was exaggerating, but as you can see from those photos I’m not,” Zabuzu said, sliding over a folder of Haku’s scarring.  Some, Sasuke had seen online. 

“Haku doesn’t leave home, wherever we are, we have to keep running,” Zabuzu said.  “We keep moving because Gato will come after us.  He knows I have this but he doesn’t think I can do anything with it.  And of course, this is just the hunting aspect of what happens to them,” Zabuzu said turning his computer around to face Itachi and Sasuke.  “There’s more.  This isn’t one group, this is many.  This is a current listing of the organizations and people I’ve found affiliated with hunts, hybrid sex slavery rings, experimentation, and many other things.  I can’t…I can’t do anything because there’s always someone that stops me.  I can’t even get to any major news outlets, the stories are killed before they can be aired, and I never can get to the reporters again.”

Itachi pulled the computer closer and began going over the listing line by line.  Sasuke glanced through the photos and was nearly sick.  “They…they’re…what the fuck,” Sasuke whispered, seeing a particularly gory image of a still alive hybrid being what could only be described as literally skull fucked.  “People, people do this…”

Naruto glanced over and nodded.  “They took me to one once, my second owner said I would make the best sport, and whoever caught me, he’d give a prize…” he whispered and Sasuke looked at him.  “The demon got out.  They all died.  He sold me the next week.”

Zabuzu looked at Naruto and swallowed.  The demon got out?  Suddenly, he was very afraid that he might have just gotten into something that was far beyond what he thought he could handle. He cleared his throat and continued. 

“The doctors couldn’t believe what they’d done to Haku.  He was in a coma for several months.  His injuries were so severe that they were unsure if he would wake up.  Blood loss and shock alone should have killed him, they said,” he said sighing. 

He pointed to the photo of his scars.  The young hybrid’s back was a mass of scar tissue.  It appeared that great swaths of flesh had just been torn from his back and stomach.  His face had several long ripping scars, and there was a nasty scar around his neck.  His legs had gouges, probably from class of the dogs or dog hybrids, in them.  His entire body was a pattern of interlocking scars, it seemed.  His wrists were slightly deformed from being impaled.

“He can’t be around others unless he’s covered.  He wears the prettiest kimonos that I can buy him, I try to make him feel better about himself, but you can imagine that he finds himself ugly.  He has a white mask he’ll wear when we are around others to cover the scars on his face.  My wife, Reiko, and I do everything we can to make him happy, but as long as we’re in danger, we’ll never be happy.  He’s begged me that since he’s of no real use to just leave him, that Gato will stop chasing us if he we leave him.  We won’t,” Zabuzu said, looking at photo fondly of him, a current one, dressed in a kimono, but without a mask.

Itachi had remained completely neutral in appearance the entire time he spoke.  He turned his head and saw that both Kiba and Hinata were sitting nearby, shifted now into their humanoid form, and Hinata sat in Kiba’s lap and they both stared into space.

“You’ve seen this,” Itachi said to them.

Hinata glanced at Kiba and back to Itachi.  “I…I knew a lot that disappeared from the shelters.  Cats, mice, rabbits, rats, the foxes were too rare, but the ones that were really common, they disappeared,” she whispered, looking at Itachi, knowing that he wanted the truth from her.  “I…I was told that if no one came for me in the next few weeks, they’d come for him for the hunts.  But then you came to the place I was in, and took me away.”

Kiba nodded.  “I…I had been told that if I got sent back again,” he said, looking down at his slightly clawed fingers.  “If I got sent back again…they’d send me to be in one of the fight rings,” he said quietly.

“Fight rings?” Itachi said, glancing at Zabuzu.

Zabuzu nodded.  “There are ‘dog fighting’ rings.  They take dog hybrids and make them fight.  The winner gets to live to fight another day, the loser is killed.  They fight or die.  They force them to attack ‘training’ animals, cats, other prey animals, the most common hybrids that breed quickly, or they don’t get to eat or just get killed.  They train them to eat their prey as well.  There are also some rather disturbing trends of breeding some of the hybrids as ‘food’, delicacies, of sorts, among some circles of upper class people.”

Itachi’s face was still inscrutable.  He wore no expression, only continued looking through the amount of files on Zabuzu’s computer.  He finally reached in his shirt and pulled up a chain.  It appeared to be a necklace, with the Uchiha symbol, but Sasuke, who had one as well, knew it wasn’t just a medallion.  Itachi clicked it open and a USB connector popped out, which he put into Zabuzu’s computer.

“I’m cloning your drive,” he commented, waiting a moment until the device beeped softly.  Itachi removed it, putting it around his neck and standing.  He moved to the door and stopped, glancing at Kiba and Hinata.  “Stay with Naruto and Sasuke tonight, you don’t want to be with me for the next few days,” he said, and left.

Zabuzu wasn’t sure what to think, but he looked over to see Sasuke smirking.  Zabuzu then smiled and stood again.  “Can I see to him?  I’ve learned some hybrid medicine since I’ve been dealing with Haku.”

Sasuke nodded, pushing Naruto off to stand up on the floor and pulling the robe off him.  Naruto gasped at the sudden exposure, but at least he wasn’t naked.  Sasuke let him wear underwear, which no one usually did.

Zabuzu was amazed at the tails as he moved around behind him.  “Naruto?  I’m going to check the tails for any bone chipping or fractures, tell me if they hurt when I touch them…”

Zabuzu started at the tip of each tail and worked his way down each one, feeling the bones all the way up almost to where they connected with his body.  He frowned.  “Fascinating, each tail is completely independent with its own separate bone structure,” he muttered, feeling the young hybrid jerk as he felt the area where the tails connected to him.  “I’m sorry, this will take a moment, I’m sure they won’t careful and sometimes the connective tissue around the tail can be damage, and a lot of time it doesn’t show up immediately. It can cause a lot of pain if it doesn’t heal correctly.”

Sasuke could see how panicked this was making him so he moved in front of him and put his arms around Naruto’s shoulders.  “Hush, Dobe, he’s not going to hurt you here, if he did, I’d fucking cut his heart out,” he muttered, pulling Naruto’s trembling body into him, running one hand over his head as he panted on him.

Zabuzu didn’t feel any tearing or damage to the ligaments and tendons, but the three tails were so unique that he couldn’t be sure.  They were grouped in a triangular fashion, two tails emerging higher, and the third emerging at the point where the typical “tailbone” on someone was.  He couldn’t be sure, his training in hybrid biology was still rudimentary, but it seemed that the hybrid’s spine literally split off into three tail bones, meaning that his nervous system would be different than any other hybrid he’d ever seen.  Naruto gave a small yelp when Zabuzu’s finger grazed the dip at the center of the three tails.

“Did that hurt?” he asked, standing.  Naruto nodded and Sasuke could see tears squeezing from his closed eyes. 

“What did you do?” Sasuke asked.

“The point where his tails come together, there’s a space between them, it’s like an upside down triangle, where the tails are each a point on the corner.  The center, it feels strange to the touch, I don’t want to do anything else, but other than that area being painful, his tails are in decent shape, some of the ligaments are stretched, probably were pulled too hard, but that should cause no long term issues.  Let’s see your ears,” Zabuzu said, moving around.

Naruto stared at him as he pulled his hair away from the area around his ears.  Naruto whimpered a little when he grazed the area where they connected to his head.  “Yeah, you need to watch his ears,” Zabuzu said thoughtfully.  “See a hybrid doctor, don’t take him there, but I’ll give you a list of things to get.  He needs to have the area where his ears connect to his scalp cared for, it is very red and irritated, again, probably pulled on.  Sometimes that point can have some scaling and can start to itch if it isn’t dealt with, and I’ve seen some lose their ears over it.  The tails, he needs to avoid moving them a lot, so try and avoid agitation, otherwise, the ligaments might stretch more.  The area between them…just…I don’t know what that is.  Just don’t do anything at all, avoid touching it, and in general keep him clean until the abrasions and contusions heal.”

Sasuke nodded, watching as Zabuzu made a list and handed it to him.  “Don’t, whatever you do, don’t take him to a hybrid doctor.  The vast majority of them are disgusting ‘vets’ who don’t have any knowledge of hybrid physiology.  Most when they encounter a hybrid with something wrong will recommend euthanasia.  And any facilities that want to keep them overnight are dangerous.  I’m going to be at that number, but if for some reason, it stops working, I put another two numbers I keep for emergency use.”

Sasuke nodded, pulling Naruto against him.  “I’ll call when Itachi decides our course of action.”

“You…you think he’ll do something?” Zabuzu asked, frowning and glancing out the door he’d left through.

“Oh yeah, his monologues that this stuff hardly ever happens just went down the fucking tubes.  He’s pissed.  The only thing is, when he gets pissed, he gets quiet and makes thing happen.  I just fucking beat the shit out of people,” Sasuke said, and found himself stroking Naruto’s blond head again.

Zabuzu nodded and left the Uchiha mansion, for the first time in years, feeling hopeful.  Things could change. 


	5. Hybrid Medial Care

 

Sasuke sighed, holding Naruto’s hand and leash in the same hand. It was the only way he could avoid feeling like shit when he put the damn leash on him. He at least, this way, knew that it wouldn’t pull on his neck. He didn’t understand how people could put leashes on other people. He looked up at the sign. It was garish, tacky, and neon. It stated the doctor’s name. Dr. Amachi. He felt Naruto’s hand flex in his as he looked up at the sign and the obnoxiously painted front of the building. As far as he could find out, this was supposedly the highest rated and most recommended hybrid doctor in town. Somehow, he believed that Zabuzu’s comment that hybrid doctors were washed up vets for the most part struck even more true standing in front of the place.

“Let’s go, Dobe,” he said, heaving a sigh, and pulling Naruto behind him.

As soon as he entered, he disliked the place even more. There was a smell of ammonia and industrial grade cleaners permeating the place, but even then, there was still the smell of excrement and blood in the air. He saw Naruto tense beside him. Granted, he knew Zabuzu said not to take Naruto to this place, but Sasuke wasn’t leaving him alone, not again. He’d even moved Naruto into his room, letting him sleep in the bed with him, and left the other bed in the other, and making it his play and rest area. The front looked like any veterinarian office. There was a waiting area and a counter. There was a lift up counter portion and you had to go through that to get to the back where the hybrids were kept. There was a door to the right, in front of the counter, that he guessed was the exam room. There was a woman behind the counter with far too much of a smile.

“Hi there! What can we do for you today?” she asked, fluttering her eyes as Sasuke.

“I need to talk to the doctor,” Sasuke said.

“Oh, is your pet in need of a doctor’s care? Dr. Amachi is the best around!” she said, smiling still.

“Yeah, whatever, he’s not touching Naruto, I just need some supplies from him,” Sasuke said, looking around.

The lady almost lost her smile. “Oh, I’m afraid if you are receiving any medications, Dr. Amachi must at least do a basic exam on your pet.”

Sasuke frowned. “Fine. But I don’t leave him.”

The lady looked from her computer. “Well, that’s an usual request, Mr.?”

“Sasuke Uchiha,” he said, not looking at her as he spoke. He noted the quick intake of breath at his name. Lovely, another bitch who wanted to take a shot at getting his money. Fucking bitches, he thought to himself, squeezing Naruto’s hand in reassurance when he felt the tremble.

“And your pet?” she asked, but Sasuke could hear the excitement in her voice.

“Naruto,” he said, still avoiding looking at her too cheery face.

“And what breed?” she asked, typing away.

“Fox, sort of,” he muttered.

She stopped. “Sort of?” she asked.

“He’s a unique, okay?” Sasuke said, fixing her with a glare.

She nodded, smiling at him broadly. “Of course he is, I’m sure that there is nothing but the best for you, Mr. Uchiha. Please have a seat and the doctor will see you soon. He has one small matter to attend to before he sees your pet.”

Sasuke resisted the urge to growl at her and tell her to use his fucking name. He led Naruto into the waiting area and sat down. There was a small window into a hallway behind it. Naruto, curious as always jumped up and went to kneel on the seat and look through it. Sasuke didn’t say anything just sighed and waited in his own chair. He smirked though, because when Naruto was curious, his three tails swished at different intervals. He seemed okay, he thought, looking away for a moment.

Then, Sasuke heard the growl start in Naruto’s throat, the deep one that he’d heard when he’d encounter Kiba and Hinata by surprise. He turned, brows scrunching to see all three of his tails still and fluffed out. His fox ears had turned flat on his hat, and to Sasuke’s shock, he watched as from the spot in the center of his tails that Zabuzu didn’t know about, another tail began to manifest. It was a thin, misty, fuzzy red outline at first that began to solidify into another tail. He gasped and jumped up, making noise enough that Naruto turned to face him, his eyes blazing red and the whiskered marks on his cheeks burning red. His face, though it didn’t elongate into a snout, had somewhat turned more fox like.

“Naruto!” he gasped, not know what to do. 

Naruto growled, jumping from the seat and running toward the door that led to the back. Sasuke was after him, remembering what Kakashi had said, that four tails were somewhat okay, that he still could reason, but five was pushing his ability to think. More than that, he became more demon than human or fox. He slammed through the door, and Sasuke heard the girl yelling at them, but Sasuke didn’t care about that, he was after Naruto. He followed him around the bend and they were coming around to the area the window looked out from. Naruto skidded to a stop in front of the door and growled louder than Sasuke had heard before.

Sasuke came up and pulled Naruto back, not really thinking, just wanting to make sure Naruto didn’t get injured. Luckily, enough of Naruto was there that he didn’t attack him. He saw then what had set Naruto off.

There was a man in there, and he had what appeared to be a hybrid chained to the floor. He was a thin creature, lanky, with white hair and bright green eyes. There were two perfect purple dots on his forehead above those eyes. Around his face, though, spikes protruded and Sasuke believed that this had to be only the second time he’d even seen a hedgehog hybrid in his life. He’d been chained by both wrists and necks to a chair, and the doctor was about to give him some sort of injection, it looked like. Sasuke knew exactly what this doctor was doing.

“Put it down,” he demanded, staring at the doctor.

The doctor looked at him, surprised, holding the hand up with the syringe. He had beady eyes and gray hair, and just looked creepy to Sasuke. “What is this? You cannot be back here.”

Naruto growled again behind him and Sasuke said again, “Put. It. Down.”

“I’m just doing my job, boy,” he said, stepping back as Naruto moved around Sasuke, and Sasuke saw the ephemeral beginnings of another tail as he stood between the doctor and the bound hybrid.

“You’re murdering him,” Naruto growled, his voice somewhere between human and something else that rattled the very teeth in Sasuke’s head.

“I’m euthanizing him, humanely. He’s ill, and I can’t help him. Believe me, it is better this way,” he said, stepping back from whatever it was Naruto was. “Um, is he yours? Because I can sue you if he damages anything.”

Sasuke smirked, leaning against the doorframe. “Sure, go ahead. I’m Sasuke Uchiha.”

Dr. Amachi paused, glancing between Sasuke and Naruto. “Oh, well, I didn’t realize who you were, but…um could you reel him in, he’s quite magnificent,” he said.

“Nh. Let’s see what he does,” Sasuke said, crossing his arms, and watching with interest as the fifth tail began to solidify. “Why don’t you explain why this is for the best?”

Dr. Amachi glanced between the two and shook his head. “I’m one of the best euthanasia doctors, I have put down many sick and unteachable hybrids. That is…one of the things some hybrid doctors will not do. I do it with a high success rate, and completely painlessly for them. It is far more humane than sending them to the shelters to live out their lives in those horrible conditions.”

Naruto’s fifth tail finalized and there was almost a tangible crackling sound in the air, and the red on his cheeks became even more pronounced. The five tails were in constant motion, and Sasuke could see that the center was indeed the nexus where the additional tails emerged. They tapered down to go into that between space at the ends.

“I don’t think he likes that answer. You know, I’ve never seen this happen before, but I hear he can get up to nine tails. Now, we’re up to five, so there’s four more to go. I don’t know what happens, so…” Sasuke said, looking at his nails and sighing, looking quite uninterested.

“What? Stop him!” Dr. Amachi yelped, moving to the wall.

“I can’t, don’t know how, see, he’s kinda special. He’s a demon fox hybrid. And, well, no one has ever pissed him off this bad, well at least that survived. Seems he doesn’t like to see other hybrids killed with no real reason,” Sasuke said, still leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest.

“There is a reason! They have to be put down if they’re sick, the owners won’t pay to have them cared for, so they just let them die! I offer to put them down so they don’t suffer! If they go to the shelters, they’ll be put through hell, and if I can save that, then it’s a good thing! There’s nothing to be done, that’s the way it is!” he said.

Sasuke shook his head. “Let that hybrid go. He’s coming with us.”

“What?” he asked, looking at him.

“Let him up. And give me the name of a real fucking hybrid doctor, not a fucking quack idiot like you,” Sasuke said pulling Naruto back from the chair as the doctor scrambled to unlock him.

The pale hybrid didn’t move, staring at Naruto’s enraged form. Sasuke shook his head. “Naruto, back down, now,” he said. When Naruto didn’t respond, Sasuke reached out and grabbed one of his clawed hands and squeezed it hard. Naruto turned and stared at Sasuke, growling deep in his throat. “Dobe, push it back,” he said, to seemingly bothered at all by Naruto’s intimidating show of power.

Naruto’s eyes blinked and his eyes rolled up into his head and shut for a moment before Sasuke looked to see first one, then the other, extra tails simple evaporated, and his face settled back into normal. His body shivered as his claws on his hands and feet receded to normal.  He panted, falling to his knees. Sasuke kneeled and put his hands on his face.

“Dobe, change into your fox form, I’ll carry you,” he said to him. Naruto looked at him with wide blue eyes and nodded, before morphing into the fox and passing out on the floor. Sasuke knelt down and picked him up, cradling him carefully in his arms. He glanced at the other hybrid. “Come on, you’re coming with us.”

He stood up slowly, glancing at the doctor and back to Sasuke. “Give me his idents. And a doctor that actually can help him.”

Dr. Amachi scrambled and grabbed a file, handing it over, and scribbled a name and address on a paper. “Just go,” he said. “And don’t come back with that…that…monster.”

Sasuke glared at him. “The only monster I see here is you.”

With that he turned, leading the other hybrid out of the office, pausing at the receptionist who was staring at him. “By the way, sweetheart, you aren’t my type. You’re not a man.”

He turned and stalked out of the office to his car, putting the hedgehog into the back seat, buckling him in, and putting Naruto on the seat beside him. He pulled the belt around him too, just in case he slid off the seat.

Sasuke got in the driver’s seat and looked in the mirror. “What’s your name?”

“Kimimaro,” he said, looking at Sasuke with a strange sad look. “I...I am sick, but I also don’t listen well,” he said. “They…they were taking me to the shelter if he wouldn’t kill me. It is okay, I do not mind, I am tired of being.”

“Of being what?” Sasuke asked as he headed for the address that the asshole had written.

Kimimaro tilted his head to the side and looked at the mirror. “Just of being,” he said slowly.

Sasuke ground his teeth. He was going to have to buy a mouth guard at this rate. He got to the address and to his surprise found it wasn’t a doctor’s office or a vet, but a house. There was a large yard and he could hear laughter from it when he opened the door. He moved around, picking up the still sleeping fox, and then opened the door for Kimimaro.

“Come on,” he said.

Kimimaro nodded, following Sasuke to the door. He knocked and there was a pause in the laughter at the yard. A few minutes later a woman in a loose top that featured her incredibly large breasts almost spilling out. It didn’t bother him, of course, he could care less for those annoying lumps of flesh. She had blond hair and piercing eyes.

“What?” she asked, frowning at him.

“I’m Sasuke Uchiha, and I was given your name by a fucking idiot named Amachi who gave himself the title of doctor. He said you were good with medicine for hybrid. Well, he didn’t say that so much as indicate it by giving your name and address when Naruto here almost ate him,” he said calmly. Kimimaro just looked at the ground.

“Which one is Naruto?” she asked.

Sasuke lifted the fox in his arms a bit. “He overdid it, but I was looking for someone to see to him after the fucking assholes at the Hybrid retreat we took him to beat the shit out of him and let people pay to rape him.”

Tsunade looked at him and was sure that this kid was different. “I’m Tsunade, come in,” she said, letting them in. “What caused your hybrid to have an issue with Amachi? Did you tell him to attack him?”

“Nope, he went after him on his own,” he said, sitting on her sofa with Naruto in his lap, gently petting his back and smiling. “It was great. He saw that he was going to kill this Kimimaro. Amachi said he was sick and disobedient so he would put him down. Fuck him. Unless he can’t be helped by medicine, no one should put him to death.”

Tsunade leaned back, crossing her legs and staring at this young man. She’d heard tales, after all, about the intense younger Uchiha. But to see him…

“So, why are you so worried about all this? Why are worried about how these hybrids get treated? They’re just property, after all,” she said.

Sasuke’s eyes snapped to her and he clutched Naruto to his chest. “They may be fucking property but they shouldn’t fucking be. They’re people, and if I have to I’ll fucking look through every damn doctor for a hundred miles until I find someone that realizes that,” he said, standing and moving to leave without another word.

“Stop,” she said, smiling.

Sasuke turned back, eye twitching in annoyance. “What, going to go on more about how this is the way it is and I should leave it alone?”

She smiled, “Not at all, Sasuke. Come, I’ll introduce you.”

As they walked toward another door Naruto squirmed and lifted up his fox head to blink at Sasuke. “Hey, you awake?” he asked him, smiling. All three tails began to wag a bit. Kimimaro followed behind, not knowing what else to do.

They opened the door, and as soon as they did, Sasuke saw three hybrids quickly transform into their animal forms and back up against the fence together. Tsunade frowned, turning and glancing at Sasuke.  Sasuke put Naruto on the ground and he shook out his fur.

“Three tails?” she asked, seeing that Naruto had three tails. “He’s not just a hybrid…”

She looked over at the three others, a pig, cat, and a rabbit. Naruto sniffed the air and locked eyes on the three of them, and all of them let out a displeased noise. Naruto whined, putting his head down on his front fox paws sadly for a moment before he transformed back into his humanoid form, nearly falling over when he stood.  Sasuke grabbed him and steadied him as he wavered.

“I’m sorry, they’re scared of me,” he said, looking at Sasuke with teary eyes. “I still smell like the demon fox,” he said, frowning and rubbing his arms. “I’m sorry, Master,” he said, looking down.

Sasuke sighed, moving around and tipping Naruto’s face up to him. “Shh, Dobe, stop that right now, you didn’t do anything wrong, the smell will go away and they won’t be as scared. You got up to five tails, so I guess that means you were angry.”

“Five?” Naruto said, his blue eyes widening in shock. “But…but I remember what happened, all of it…and…and I didn’t feel like it was consuming me…” he said. “I didn’t realize I had the other tails…”

“Wait, what is this?” she said, eyes narrowing.

Naruto sighed, shaking his head. “I just want Master Jariaya again…” he whined.

“Jariaya?” Tsunade asked, frowning. “Wait, you’re…he actually found him?” she said.

Naruto looked up. “What? You knew Jariaya?”

“Yeah, well. Really well,” she said, looking at him. “He was going to the forests to find the demon fox. He said that he’d been studying the hybrids and found a link between demons and hybrids, but he needed to see if Kyuubi would speak to him.” She looked him over. “You weren’t kidding when you said they beat the shit out of him. Come on,” she said. She looked at the others.

“These are my hykids, well that’s what we who have them call them. I never could have children, so these are my children. I’m not the only one, but others are more covert than I am. I’m also working on establishing regulation for adopting hybrids so they aren’t used as if they’re less than animals.” She smiled, gesturing to them. “The one that’s a pig right now, that’s Shizune. Since that breed is so rare, she was the first one I rescued. I found him in a makeshift brothel. The rabbit is Hayate, and I rescued him from a hunt ring. The cat hybrid is Kabuto. He…just showed up one day, and I took him in.”

She led them back into the house through it. Kimimaro was still with them, having followed silently as they moved around to another door into a room that was basically a hospital room. Naruto clutched at Sasuke’s hands. Tsunade gestured at Kimimaro. “You first,” she said.

She set to work examining the hedgehog hybrid.  After a bit, she looked over what she had. “I’ll take some blood to verify, but it’s very treatable, a common virus among Erinaceinae species hybrids.”

“Now, why don’t you go out to the back and play with the others? I’ve got a lot of toys out there, and there’s a small refrigerator in the garage with snacks and drinks stocked in it. Help yourself, hon,” she said, smiling.

Kimimaro nodded hesitantly but did as she said, heading out and finding the others had resumed their humanoid form once Naruto had left. Naruto clung to Sasuke.

“Now you,” she said to him. “Come on, if you don’t get examined properly, you could get very sick, hop up here.”

Naruto looked at Sasuke with pleading eyes. “Dobe, get your ass up there,” he muttered steering him up to sit on the bed. He looked at Tsunade, tails swishing back and forth on the bed.

Tsunade did the same things she had for Kimimaro, took his temperature, checked lungs, heart, eyes. She got a quick blood sample then had him lay on his back to check his stomach and the brusing that wasn’t all faded yet.

“Now, the part you aren’t going to like,” she said, looking up at Sasuke. “I need to check for injuries from when they had him at that boarding house.”

Naruto sat up and shook his head at her, grabbing Sasuke and pulling him close to him. “No, no, no, it…its fine…”

Tsunade sighed. “I’ve got to check. And you’re a male with testes and penis, right?”

“There’s other kinds of males?” Naruto said with wide eyes.

Tsunade sighed. “Yeah, there’s more than one type of male. I need to check you out and make sure they didn’t do anything to you that is going to cause infection. Have you had any pain?”

Naruto shook his head furiously, until he felt Sasuke put his hand on the back of his neck, squeezing just enough to get his attention. “Dobe, tell her the truth,” he said in a voice that left no room for argument.

Naruto whimpered and seemed to shrink. “When…when…I use the bathroom sometimes,” he said quietly. “And sometimes, things feel weird with the front, like itchy, and I just…” he said, turning bright red as he spoke.

“Okay, come on, let’s get this over with,” he said, smiling at him. Get out of those pants, here put this on your lap,” she said, handing him a white sheet. When he just stared she rolled her eyes and turned her back to him. “Okay, go ahead.”

Naruto slid of and slid his jeans and underwear off, then got back on the table, covering himself with the sheet she’d given him. Sasuke rolled his eyes and started petting his head. “Relax, she’s not going to hurt you.”

Naruto couldn’t speak, but she moved around and started checking over his tail. He yelped when he felt her touch the spot in the middle of his tails. She looked up at Sasuke. “This isn’t like anything I’ve ever seen…I don’t know what to think of this from a medical standpoint. It has tissue in there, but not like anything I’ve ever encountered. Obviously it’s sensitive.”

“The other tails appear there,” Sasuke said. “Like, they start out a red outline, then the like slowly come into focus and then taper down into that space, but it’s like they’re connected spiritually, not physically. He had two of them, and they both tapered down into that space.”

Tsunade nodded, feeling the tails each individually. “Yeah, his spine splits here,” she said, pointing on his back. “This is the last spinal vertebrae, after that they each have their own nerve and muscle system attached to a separate tale. You are going to have to be careful with this,” she said, looking at Sasuke.

“Like how?” Sasuke asked, looking closely at what she was doing.

Tsunade arched a brow at him. Sasuke realized what she meant. “Hey, I don’t do that to him! I have never made him do anything!” he asked, feeling immediately defensive. “Those other fucking bastards raped him, I would never do that to anyone.”

“I didn’t indicate you were forcing him into anything, Sasuke,” she said. “Even in consensual acts, care needs to be taken with these tails. The nerves run underneath them, and they’re usually attached in a circular fashion with ligaments. Those ligaments, on a regular hybrid, function without a problem. This, though, there are three sets of ligaments attached to completely independent tails. Damage to any one of them is going to put him in severe pain moving any of them. And with this unique configuration,” she said, pointing to the way the tails came out in a triangular fashion. “You see how the ligaments, if they were in a circle around the tail, would go right under where this spot in the center is?”

Sasuke nodded, seeing what she meant. “The problem is, I don’t think, from the strength and thickness of the ligaments here,” she showed him the outer edge of the tail, putting Sasuke’s finger against it. He felt the pull under the skin when the tail flicked. “That’s thicker and stronger because there are no ligaments on this side.”

Sasuke nodded. “So, unlike another hybrid, he only has ligaments on one side of each of his tails, or close to that.”

“Right, and that makes those tails more vulnerable. Naruto, have you had a lot of times when your tails were damaged?” she asked him, patting his back.

“Um,” he said, still trembling as they stared at his back.  “Yeah…wh-when they’ve pulled on them…or, or…there was once that this man w-wanted to see if the three of them could-could…be b-braided…he br-broke one, the bottom one,” he said quietly. “And it…they always hurt after…after…they do things. They push them up and the bottom one gets sore a lot,” he said, and Sasuke could see that he was having a hard time with this.

“Naruto, you’ve been naked in front of me and everyone in the house multiple times and didn’t mind it, what’s the matter now?” Sasuke asked.

Naruto looked down at his hands. “I’m sorry, Master…I just…got used to be…being able to wear clothes, and not…not…”

Sasuke took his hands. “Hey, stop that. It’s okay. That’s good, okay?” he said, smiling. “You should have to go around without clothes or in clothes that are just for some asshole to get off on.”

Naruto nodded. Tsunade came and looked at him seriously. “Alright, let’s get you checked for anything those people might have passed on to  you at that awful place,” she said, smiling at Naruto.

“Do I have to?” Naruto whined.

“Yes,” Sasuke said.

“Okay, let me pull this out,” she said, moving a lamp over and pulling a stool over. She then pulled out metal stirrups and patted Naruto on the knee. “Okay, this is going to be weird, but you aren’t going to fall off, promise. Lay back, and scoot down to the end. Put your feet up in these. You’ll feel part of the table come out from under you, but it’s to let your tails drop underneath you. You won’t fall, okay, promise. This is a table designed for just this purpose.”

Sasuke looked at her. “They…they make tables to be able to treat them for this sort of thing?” he asked.

“Well, that and normal care. The ones capable of giving birth can have complications, or there are infections that can happen, they have lots of reasons for using these. But…yes, most common use of these type of hybrid exam beds is to deal with examining and treating rape victims. Even though our laws don’t even acknowledge it as rape, only misuse of property.”

Sasuke nodded, helping the nervous fox lay back slowly. Naruto’s leg muscles were shaking, though so he and Tsunade helped put up his legs. She reached under the table and there was a click, and Naruto gasped, grabbing the table with both hands, digging all ten claws into the material.

“And that’s why it has fabric instead of plastic covers,” Tsunande muttered, adjusting the light and finding that Naruto had his knees together tightly.

“Naruto, I need you to relax. I need to figure out what’s going on, or you could get very sick,” she said, sighing. 

Sasuke took his hand and petted his head slowly. “Come on, Dobe, I’m here,” he said.

Finally, he relaxed enough and let his legs fall outward. Tsunade adjusted the sheet over his knees so she could see. “Ah, that’s what I thought,” she muttered, reaching behind her and grabbing a swab.  Naruto flinched.

“What was that?” he asked.

“I think you have Clamydia, at least,” she said. “Usually, there’s a partner to that one,” she muttered.  “Naruto, I need you to stay calm, because I’m going to be touching you and examining the inside. So you’ll feel cold from the lubricant as I slide my finger inside, but it shouldn’t hurt, okay?”

Naruto’s eyes went wide and he shook his head. “I don’t like it,” he said.  Sasuke shushed him. She grumbled under her breath. “Dammit,” she muttered. “Naruto, I’m going to use something so I can get a swab, it might cause some pressure, but I will be done quickly.”

Naruto’s eyes went wide and he grasped hard on Sasuke’s hand. “What…what…Ah! Don’t do that, stop!” he said, eyes wide.

“Just a second more,” she said, getting the swabs as quickly as she could.

“Please, take that out of me,” he whined, tears starting to fall, as he held Sasuke’s hand hard.

“Okay, done,” she said, sliding the speculum back out, dropping it into her basket to be sanitized again.

As soon as she cleaned him up from the gel and put the bottom back into the table, he sat up and grabbed onto Sasuke, burying his head in his chest. Sasuke patted his back and held him, looking over at Tsunade.

“Some internal fissures, and he’s got a nasty case of gonorrhea, and probably chlamydia too. I’ll send the swabs to the lab, but I’m going to start treating him for it with antibiotics anyway. And by the look, it has developed into a case of proctitis, or inflammation of the rectum. My guess is this isn’t his first infection. Honey, why didn’t you say something? You have got to be in pain.” she said, patting him on the back gently.

“B-because it…it…happened a lot…” he said slowly. “I thought…I thought that it was supposed to…to feel like that…” he muttered.

Tsunade had to turn away for a second to collect herself. “Okay,” she said. She went to the cabinet and pulled out several things and put them in a bag. “Start him on the antibiotics right away, twice a day for ten days, use this for pain, apply it using gloves, I’ve put a box in this bag,” she said showing Sasuke a jar of some sort of salve. “There’s a rundown of dos and don’ts during the healing process, I’ll check the blood and the samples, but it takes a week to get them back. Go ahead with treatment until then, I’ll contact you with anything else that might be an issue then.”

Sasuke nodded, looking at the bag that she kept throwing things into. “This is a salve to use around his tails until the ligaments completely heal,” she said. “This is for the area around his ears. Make certain that none gets into his ears. Also, be careful with his ears during bathing, it’s very easy to get water in them and cause an infection before you realize it. Follow these instructions, and come back in one week. I’ll have to recheck him, but if everything seems to be healing, and the inflammation is going down, then we should be in the clear. If it doesn’t, I’ll have to run some more tests on it.”

Sasuke nodded. “O-okay…” he said as Tsunade smiled.

“I’ll step out, he can get dressed and you both should go home and he should rest,” she said with a smile.

Sasuke nodded, completely forgetting about the hedgehog hybrid, but as he got Naruto seated in the car and walked around the car, he heard his voice and laughter. He smiled and nodded to himself. If nothing else, he had someone that could help him when he needed a doctor.


	6. Matters of Between

Chapter Six

 

Sasuke found that trying to deal with Naruto after visiting the doctor was turning out more difficult than he imagined. He would hide from him when he needed to put the salves on him. The first time, he’d found him under the bed.

“Get your ass out from under there, Dobe,” he said, growling at him. “You know that you have to have this done, so stop this nonsense. The fox whined in returned, tails fluffed up as he flicked them around to cover his face. Sasuke sighed. “You get out from under there right now, or I’m calling her and telling her you won’t let me do it. Then she’ll come here and do it herself.”

Naruto didn’t really want to have her come see him again, even though he knew he had to go back in a week. So he’d slunk out from under the bed and returned to his humanoid shape, staring at the floor. Sasuke sighed. “Up on the bed, let’s take care of it.”

“But…I don’t want…and can’t I…” he whined.

“Dobe, you have claws, exactly how are you going to do this?” Sasuke asked, glaring at him. “They’d rip right through the gloves, and I don’t even want to know what you could do to yourself.”

It was true that having claws was something Sasuke couldn’t imagine dealing with. Normally, they weren’t too much of an issue, just a bit longer than normal fingernails, but something so delicate…there was no way he was letting him try to do it on his own. He nodded, climbing up on the bed and sitting down, staring at his hands.

“Lay down, Dobe, on your side, remember?” Sasuke said with a sigh.

Naruto did as he was told, tails flicking as Sasuke pushed them away. It didn’t take long, but Naruto did feel somewhat more comfortable with Sasuke than he had with the lady doctor. He whimpered though, several times through the process until he heard Sasuke pulling off the gloves behind him, dropping them into the trash.

“There we go,” he said, turning to see him staring at him with wide eyes. “What is it now?” Sasuke asked, feeling exasperated with him again. It was a common state of being, he was finding.

“M-master?” he asked, sitting up on the bed on his knees.

Sasuke sighed, wondering if he was ever going to get him to stop calling him master. “What?”

Naruto sighed, fingers twining together. “Um, I just…I wanted to say thank you,” he said, looking down, and Sasuke saw that he was blushing.

Sasuke leaned over and pushed his face up by his chin, locking eyes on his clear blue ones. “What for, Dobe?”

“For…for this…taking care of me, and…and…not being like the others,” he said, looking down again.

“I don’t need thanks for not raping someone, Dobe,” he said with a sigh.

“But I’m not someone, I’m a…property, so you could…if you wanted…do whatever you wanted,” he said slowly. “Not that anyone would want to with…” he said, looking away.

Sasuke’s brows knitted for a second, wondering if Naruto was saying what it seemed like he was saying. “You’ll be well soon, a couple weeks, remember?” Sasuke said. “It will be cleared up, and you’ll feel better.”

Naruto nodded. “But…but…” he stammered, before stopping to look away.

“But what?” Sasuke said, sitting down against the head of the bed and looking at him.

“I…I…I…” he stammered again, his cheeks nearly as red as the whisker marks on his face. “I like you, master,” he finally whispered.

Sasuke’s first thought was he wished he would stop calling him that, then that ground to a halt when he realized what he’d said. “What?” he asked, frowning at him.

“If…if you w-want me, I want to be yours,” he said, shifting and looking away again.

It took Sasuke a minute to put together what he was saying and he realized what it meant. “Naruto, I don’t expect anything from you. I told you, you don’t have to please me, not at all.”

Naruto nodded. “Th-that’s why…because you…you don’t demand it. I…I want to give…give myself to you,” he said, looking up at him with eyes that were starting to tear up. “I want…want to know what its like…to feel…feel happy and loved…and…and…” He flushed again and covered his face with both hands.

Sasuke moved and pulled his hands away from his face. “Naruto, are you asking me to do what I think you are?”

Naruto nodded slowly, his hands still in Sasuke’s. To his surprise, Sasuke leaned forward and planted a gentle kiss on his forehead, then one on his nose, and finally, he placed a gentle chaste kiss on his lips. Naruto’s heart was beating so fast he didn’t know what to do as Sasuke sat back and stared at him. He clutched Sasuke’s hands in his desperately, not wanting to let go of him.

“Dobe, you are an idiot,” he muttered, smiling at him and sighing. “Look, when you are healthy, we will talk more. But you get to choose whatever you like. Okay?”

Naruto nodded, still blushing as Sasuke leaned back and pulled him over with him on the bed, laying down. “Come on, sleep, you need the rest. Did you take your medicine?”

Naruto nodded, putting his head on Sasuke’s chest and listening to his heart beat for a long time before he fell asleep there. Sasuke ran his fingers through his hair, sighing. He wasn’t sure how to handle this part. Part of him wanted to tell Naruto no, that it was just his training to please his masters. However, part of him responded to Naruto’s presence in that way, and he wanted to hold him, to possess him in every way. But only if Naruto wanted it. He sighed, falling asleep with the hybrid on his chest and wondering if the next few weeks would be as interesting around her.

The next day, Sasuke found out that things were going to be interesting because Itachi had returned home after his trip, and summoned Sasuke to a meeting he had with his board. Sasuke brought Naruto, of course. He wasn’t leaving him anywhere anymore. Itachi started to say something but didn’t when he saw the possessive way Sasuke sat at the side of the room with Naruto tucked under his arm.

“Uchiha, what is this about?” asked one of the board members. “And why is your brother and his pet here?”

“They are what this meeting is called, at least, my brother and Naruto is why I’ve spent time looking into the situation with Hybrids,” he said, looking around.

“Sir, with all respect, we’re not involved in sale or regulation of Hybrids, so I don’t see how…” another man started.

Itachi glared around the room. “This is part of the problem. No one wants to step forward. So I, and this company, is going to step forward as a public supporter of the Hybrid Rights Association.”

There was murmured discussion. “Sir, that is a polarizing topic, we could lose stock value immediately…” stammered one of the.

“You want to know what I’ve found out recently?” he said, looking at them. “I found out they have hunts, where they chase hybrids with dogs and murder them. But before they do, they torture and do horrible things to them that no human should do to any creature. They are used as sex slaves all over the country. They are sold and traded as commodities. They are property, and this is wrong,” he said, sighing deeply.

The board members exchanged glances. “Sir, that’s the state of affairs, there is nothing to be done.”

“This is slavery,” Itachi said. “Pure and simple, there’s no other way to put it. Canada allows hybrids to be citizens, did you know that? They’re free to do as they will, working jobs, having their own families,” he said, glancing among them. In some places, they’re treated with reverence, but still not allowed freedom, like the Asian countries. They are treated as sub human almost world wide.”

“But sir, they’re not human,” someone piped up. “They’re animals.”

Itachi stared at him for a long moment. “Do they think? Do they feel? Do they reason?”

“Yes, but…” the man continued.

“No, that’s your answer. There’s no excuse that this country allows it. We are supposed to be about freedom. No, this isn’t a discussion, it is already happening. And I’m working with the HRA to draft laws that can be easily implemented on the local scale, and implementation will happen.”

The board talked among themselves until Itachi dismissed them, going over to Sasuke and Naruto. “How have things been?”

Sasuke sighed. “Well, I found a doctor that treats hybrids like human beings. She found out he’s been given a couple nasty infections by those bastards that attacked him. I hope they all got the clap afterward,” he muttered annoyed.

“Well, the one you got your hands on will certainly think twice before putting his cock where it is not wanted,” Itachi muttered, looking to see that Naruto still cowered a bit, but he was getting better.

Itachi knelt down, though, surprising Naruto as he locked eyes on him. “Hush, now, you’re fine,” Itachi said, smiling at him. He sighed. “I’m sorry, for not realizing this sooner. I might have saved you some of the harm you’ve endured,” he said reaching up and putting a hand on Naruto’s face. “But I’m going to try now.”

Sasuke resisted the urge to slap Itachi for touching Naruto. He sighed and nodded. “I’ve got to get him back for his medicine,” he commented, standing up and leaving Itachi kneeling there watching them go off.

Sasuke wasn’t happy with the way Itachi was acting. He was being too familiar with Naruto and he wasn’t going to have it. Of course, Naruto only could tell that Sasuke was annoyed and tugging him along through the house quickly. He thought perhaps he’d done something wrong and he didn’t know how to fix it. Had he gotten mad because he said he wanted to be with him in that way? He should have known better, he was a used creature, and even had the nasty things that came with it. He felt like he wanted to crawl under the bed again and hide from Sasuke but he was afraid he’d get even angrier at him, so he didn’t, he just stared at the ground and followed him quickly.

They got back to Sasuke’s room and Sasuke slammed the door, making Naruto jump and whimper out loud. Sasuke turned and glared at him and Naruto was sure he was going to hit him because he was mad.

“Dobe…” he said in a surprisingly soft voice as Naruto felt a hand on the back of his head. “Hey,” he said, using his other hand to tip his face upward.

“I’m going to tell you this once, okay?” Sasuke said, staring into Naruto’s eyes. “You are mine.” Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine but it was different from ever before. He actually wanted Sasuke to say those words. “You are mine not because you’re a piece of property, because you aren’t. You are mine not because you’ve been given to me like some whore, because you aren’t that either. You are mine because I want you, not a fucking hybrid pet. I want a person, one that I want to be around, one that can…” Sasuke sighed deeply. “One that can love me despite what an asshole I can be at times. And who can stand up to me when I go too far. I know you can do that, because I’ve seen that demon come out. I’ve seen that side of you, and I know that you’re no pushover, no matter what you’ve learned.”

Naruto put his hand over Sasuke’s hand where it held his chin. “Even…even with what…what they did?” he said quietly. “Even…even though I’m…dirty?”

Sasuke’s face dissolved into a smile. “I don’t care about that, Dobe,” he said leaning forward and pressing a gentle kiss on his nose. “I’ll gladly be your first, if you want.”

Naruto scrunched his brows. “But there’s been others…” he started, his heart beginning to race.

“Not any that you gave yourself to,” Sasuke said, running his hands over his head. “They may have taken you by force, but they never got here,” he said, poking his chest thoughtfully. “You are just as valid and human as I am, and you will be fine. I’ll make sure that you don’t go anywhere, okay?”

Naruto nodded, eyes welling with tears. “Okay,” Naruto said nodding.

Sasuke smiled, leaning forward and kissing his lips just lightly. “Now, we have some medication to get in and on you,” he said.

Naruto groaned and whimpered a bit but followed him to the bed again.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Boss?” Kisame said, coming in and handing a file to Orochimaru with a grin.

Orochimaru looked up and took the file. He thumbed through it without much thought then smiled. It was exactly what he was looking for.

“Where’d you find this?” he asked, smirking at Kisame.

“Well, you said dig up all the legals on that fox kit. So I did, and I found this one. I thought I had remembered you talking to this guy, back when he first bought him. And you paid him something so that he’d have to sell him to you afterward. So that addendum is in his contract of sale. Since he didn’t, then they have to repeal his current contract,” Kisame said with a smirk.

“Good, good, I think the lawyer arranged it, and I hadn’t remembered,” he said smiling. “But this is perfect, start the proceedings, should take a month or two to process through the court system, but by the time it’s over, that demon fox will be mine…” he said, smirking.

The young one would be a beneficial byproduct, after all, he was after the secrets held by the demon fox. He turned and steepled his fingers under his chin, his eyes flickering for a moment become the inner membrane flicked over his eyes for a second. He smiled, licking at his fangs for a moment. He was hungry. So hungry…

He got up slowly and went to the small attached room. As soon as the light flipped on there were squeaks of fearful hybrids. He looked around the room, eyes landing on one of the mouse hybrids.

“Hmm, you’ll do nicely,” he said, going to the cage, reaching in and grabbing her by the hair. She could yell, she was gagged, of course. “You look…tasty. A race, how about that?” he said into her wide gray ears.

He drug her out of the room, opening a hatch beside his desk that led into a large, elaborate terrarium filled with different kinds of snakes.  He pushed a button, and the snakes all moved to another part. He smiled at the frightened mouse hybrid, his forked tongue flicking out for a second and he smiled. He pushed a button on her collar that forced her into animal form. He tossed the mouse through the opening, closing it with a smirk. He moved around to watch through the glass as she raced around the enclosure, then he smiled, shifting smoothly into the python and sliding through a one way opening into the enclosure. A human could open the door from the inside, of course, that was how it was arranged. He slithered after his squeaking prey.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Itachi sighed, wondering how he was going to manage convincing these people of his seriousness about the Hybrid Rights Association. He supposed that the Zabuzu guy would help, he had gotten plenty of evidence from him. However, he needed a focal point, and he knew that the rabbit hybrid Haku wouldn’t do for that. Rabbits were common and not memorable, for one, but also he was mentally unable to handle what he needed. He tapped his pen thoughtfully. He could use Naruto, he was perfect as far as uniqueness and such, but Sasuke was a problem. He could tell that his little brother was more than possessive of the hybrid, and in more than a master and his pet.

He sighed, wondering how he would manage to draw attention to his plight. So far his campaign was mostly made up of anecdotal evidence, and a couple people who could testify personally, and he had pictures of several hybrids from the morgues throughout the city. But people needed someone to recognize, gravitate to, as a representative of all other hybrids. He needed Sasuke to let him use Naruto for that. Who wouldn’t support such a cute, innocent looking hybrid?

He knew that earlier, when he was talking to Naruto, Sasuke got jealous. But he wasn’t interested in his hybrid like he thought. He saw potential in him to be a spokesperson for all the hybrids of the world that were mistreated. He saw it there, and he needed to figure out how to convince Sasuke. But now, he’d made him mad, and his little brother was such a pain when he got it in his head that he was angry at Itachi.

He sighed, wondering how to make Sasuke be less angry. He couldn’t go tell him what he wanted, because Sasuke would take that the wrong way too. He smiled to himself, pulling out his phone and dialing a number.

“Zabuzu,” came the answer on the phone.

“Zabuzu, Itachi, I wanted to present you with a proposition,” he said evenly.

“What kind of proposition?” Zabuzu asked hesitantly.

“Well, I don’t know if you’ve caught up with the news, but I’ve been publicly supporting Hybrid Rights lately, and I believe my little brother is suspicious that I don’t have good intentions. I’d like to offer you and your small family a chance to stop moving around and come stay at the mansion until things work out for everyone,” he said with a smile on his face. This would do it, he thought.

Zabuzu was quiet for a long time. “What’s the catch?”

“No catch, I’m offering you a stable home for you, your wife, and Haku. In return, all I ask is that you continue to help me with the Hybrid Rights work, behind the scenes of course, and that perhaps you and your family may be able to help Sasuke and Naruto in the healing process they go through together,” he said, hoping the man would take his offer. He needed Naruto to be in the best condition mentally to do what he wanted him to do.

“What assurances do I have?” he asked tentatively.

“I’ll offer you a contract, legally binding, if that’s what you’d like,” he said. “Easy enough, but I would like to see Naruto eventually become a HRA spokesperson. I believe that he could very easily influence people to realize that hybrids deserve rights, and I think that you and your family would help with that.”

Zabuzu paused again. “And what if Naruto doesn’t like this idea?”

“Then hopefully I’ll find another hybrid that would like to do it by then. However, I’ll never know if Naruto wants to if he doesn’t move forward and recover from the trauma he’s been through. I do want to see him happy, but I want to put a stop to the travesty of how these people are treated, and I know you do as well,” Itachi said, sighing. He really did want to see things change, but he feared that without a vocal hybrid representative it wasn’t going to happen. He had to make them people in everyone’s eyes and not animals.

“Can you send a car to pick us up? We do have a few things, not many,” he said softly.

“Of course, give me the address, and I’ll have a van sent out,” Itachi said, grabbing a pen and paper.

Zabuzu gave him the information, and Itachi did as he promised, sending a van to them right away. They would be here in a couple hours. He summoned one of his maids and requested that she prepare two of the rooms close to Sasuke’s for them to stay in. She headed off to do it, and Itachi believed that for once, he was doing something right, for the right reasons. He sighed though, because he had a feeling things weren’t going to go smoothly.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Naruto had fallen asleep on Sasuke’s chest after they’d wrestled through the application of the medications. Sasuke was stroking his head without much thought and reading a news article when he started to twitch in his sleep. He frowned, putting his phone to the side. He was obviously locked in some sort of nightmare. He was muttering and panting, hands and feet twitching and Sasuke felt the release of power. He yanked down the cover, and realized that four tails were simultaneously appearing in the space, light red outlines quickly materializing.

“Naruto! Wake up!” Sasuke gasped, shaking his shoulders hard.

Naruto’s eyes flew open, blazing red and he blinked, the blue fading back into his eyes and the tails fading away. He panted and then grabbed Sasuke in a tight embrace around his chest, and Sasuke could feel tears wetting his shirt.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he repeated, and Sasuke stroked his head, shushing him.

“What happened?” he asked.

Naruto looked up at Sasuke, eyes full of tears that just kept spilling out of them. “It was the bad one again,” he whispered.

“The bad one?” Sasuke asked, frowning, and wiping Naruto’s tears with his thumbs as he stroked his hair on the sides of his face.

“Dreams, there’s one, one I hate more than anything, and it…it is the worst,” he whispered.

“What is it?” Sasuke asked.

Naruto seemed to burrow even closer to him, and swallowed thickly. “I’m running, in a forest area, and now, now you’re there too, calling my name, and I’m happy. I’m running toward you and I want to see you, but then something grabs my tails. And it hurts, like shooting this horrible pain from the tip of my tail to my ears, and my eyes start dripping blood…I see it on my paws, and I fall down…and then I look behind me…and…and there’s a snake…a big snake…and its…its swallowing me…and I can’t get away, and it swallows me all the way up, and then everything turns red because the demon comes out, and…and I can’t stop it…and I burst through the snake’s body, but…but I don’t know you…and I rip...rip your throat out and keep running…running…” he swallowed, looking up at him. “It…it’s the one I’ve had since before. Before it was Master Jariya. Then…then it was Kakashi…and now you. I can’t control it, and it hurts everyone I care about!”

Sasuke sighed, pulling him a bit tighter. “Hush, now. It’s a dream,” he said softly, but Sasuke was worried. The unbridled fear in Naruto’s eyes frightened him.

Naruto knew it wasn’t a dream. Jariya had worried endlessly over the dream, and had tried to figure out what it meant. He’d gone to the forest so many times to try and find Kyuubi, but he would never emerge again, not since Naruto’s mother was killed. The demon was in mourning, and had been for many years now. He didn’t want to emerge, and he resisted the calling when Jariya called him. Naruto had tried, when he was little, but his father wouldn’t answer him either. He had loved his mother more than anything, and he couldn’t face the world without her.

Naruto finally fell asleep again, with Sasuke’s hands petting him and stroking his head and back. Sasuke had a feeling in his gut, though, that he didn’t like. The snake. It reminded him of someone, but he didn’t place it. The face flashed before him, but he lost it as he fell into his own dreamless sleep.

During the night, neither the sleeping hybrid nor Sasuke saw the silent figure in the room. The outline was faint, very faint, a barely discernable reddish color that formed a figure of a woman with long, vibrant red hair falling down her back. She sat on the bed, running her hand over Naruto’s head, though she could not feel him in her limbo state. She sighed, standing and looking out the window at the moon. She was stuck between worlds, and would remain so until her son and Kyuubi were together. She would remain, a silent watcher between the worlds of demons and humans. Naruto was the bridge that linked them, and no one realized how desperately important that was. They didn’t know, of course. None of them were like her. None else would slide into the in between to wait rather than die. She wasn’t alive, of course. Her body had been left behind that day. With her last strength, though, she’d cast an ancient magic that slipped her between worlds. She wasn’t sure the outcome, of course. Naruto would either be able to open the bridge between worlds, or he would be able to seal it forever. That choice, however, was only with him.


	7. Learning to Live Agan

 

Naruto learned the next morning that they were going to have guests. Itachi came down and knocked on Sasuke’s door just after breakfast. Sasuke opened it and glared at his elder brother.

“What do you want?” he grumbled at him.

“I wanted to say that I offered Zabuza, his wife, and their hybrid Haku a place to stay. They’ve been running a long time, and I thought it would help him, and it is somewhat self-serving for me as well. I wish to utilize Zabuza to help me with the Hybrid rights initiatives I’m beginning.” Itachi nodded, and turned and left. Sasuke watched him go.

“I don’t trust him,” Sasuke muttered turning back to see that Naruto was snuggled around his pillow. He sighed, not wanting to wake him. He wandered out of the bedroom into the living room and sat down to watch the news.

He was about to fall asleep when he heard noise. He sat up and saw that there were servants moving around. He got up and stretched, going to the front where Itachi was welcoming Zabuza into the house. He had a woman with him and the Rabbit hybrid from his photos. As Sasuke came up he nodded to him.

“Sasuke, Zabuza and his family are here,” he said. “This is his wife Reiko and Haku.”

The rabbit was wearing a pretty kimono and the white mask that he’d seen in Zabuza’s photos. The woman wore what looked like a track suit and had short pixie cut hair. If he didn’t already know she was a woman, he would have thought her a man. Of course, he knew appearances were deceiving.

Sasuke nodded. “Hey, so, Naruto’s asleep. So welcome and all that,” he said with a shrug.

The shriek from behind Sasuke sent him spinning around and running toward his room. “Shit!” he said as he came skidding to a stop and went in to find Naruto tangled into the covers again, in the middle of a nightmare again. “Shit, shit, shit,” he muttered as he started to untangle him.

Zabuza had come after him with his wife and the hybrid and were standing just inside the doorway. Sasuke growled under his breath as he managed to finally get him uncovered.

“Oh, fuck,” he muttered seeing that he was up to two extra tails already. “Oh fuck,” he muttered again, and crawled up onto the bed and shook him in an attempt to wake him up. “Dobe! Naruto! Wake up!”

Haku, who was standing beside Zabuza nearly screamed and tried to run out of the room, only to run in to Reiko. She held onto him tightly as she stepped out into the hallway. Even Zabuza and Itachi could feel the almost electric sensation in the air and crackling sound.

“What is this?” Itachi asked.

“Naruto…come on, I need you to come back…” Sasuke said as he tried to avoid his elongating claws. He yelped when his back claws sliced through his leg as he wrestled with him. “Shit, Dobe, that fucking hurts!” he said as he managed to get him onto his stomach so he could watch the tails. “Itachi! How many?”

“How many what?” he asked.

“Tails! I don’t want to let him go to look, how many fucking tails does he have!” he yelled as he pinned his wrists to the bed to avoid his front claws and had his leg over his ankles to keep the back ones out of him.

“Um, the three and like three red colored ones…” he said slowly.

“Shit, shit…um…Itachi, one of you, get me some water or something, we have wake him up, or we’re in trouble…” he yelled as he realized he was not going to be able to hold him for long.

Sasuke gasped as he was thrown to the floor and Naruto was up, eyes wide and burning red as he was on all fours now, arms and legs transforming to some strange mix of fox and human. Sasuke pulled himself to his feet just as Itachi came back with a pitcher of ice water. Sasuke grabbed it and slung it onto him.

For a minute nothing happened and then Naruto shivered and his eyes flickered between red and blue.

“Wha…” he whispered as the changes started receding immediately. He gasped and looked at Sasuke who was bleeding through is pants and shook his head as the tails disappeared. “Master!” he gasped. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Sasuke crawled back up on the sopping wet bed and pulled him over. “Shut up, Dobe. Come on, let’s get you changed and I think I might need stitches…” he muttered.

Naruto was sobbing, though, as Sasuke ripped his pant leg open and looked at the four long cuts in his leg. They’d stopped bleeding.

“Ah, no stitches,” he muttered and looked at Naruto. “Stop it, I’m fine. You had a bad nightmare again.”

“I hurt you!” he said as he seemed to wilt to the floor at his feet.

“Yeah, whatever,” he said as he stood up and went to the dresser and pulled out some dry clothes. “Here, let’s change you.”

Naruto looked at him. “You…you aren’t mad…”

“No, stupid. Come on, we’re going to talk to these people, remember Zabuza, his family and him are here,” Sasuke said and turned nodded to them as he shut the door.

Naruto got into the new clothes and watched as Sasuke changed his. Naruto couldn’t help but watch him intently as he did it because he thought Sasuke was beautiful. Sasuke looked at him and snapped his fingers. Naruto looked up at him.

“You okay?” Sasuke asked.

Naruto nodded. “I…yeah,” he said.

Sasuke took Naruto into the living room then where Reiko, Zabuza, and Haku were all sitting. “Okay, so here’s Naruto when he’s not demonified,” Sasuke said as he dropped into the chair with a wince. He still had hold of Naruto’s hand though, and pulled him down onto his lap. Naruto gasped but didn’t mind at all. He looked tentatively over at the others and then hid his face in sheer embarrassment.

“Does this happen often?” Zabuza asked.

“Nah, just when he has a really bad nightmare,” Sasuke said as he threaded his fingers through Naruto’s hair. “After what those fucking people did to him, I don’t blame him,” he said with a deep sigh.

Haku looked up then and stared. He could see the scars on the other hybrid now, criss crossing his back and arms. He got up and went over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. Naruto winced but looked up at him. He couldn’t see it but Haku smiled.

“I’m Haku,” he said softly.

Naruto nodded. “Hi,” he said and swallowed. “I’m sorry I scared you, I scare everyone,” he muttered as he looked away.

“It’s okay,” Haku said with a very gentle voice. “I was just surprised. I’ve never felt something so…strong.”

Naruto nodded. “I don’t know how to control it,” he whispered. “I need to find my father so I can learn,” he said and tucked his head under Sasuke’s chin.

Haku tilted his head to the side. “Your father?”

“Naruto isn’t a lab hybrid. He’s actually a natural one,” Sasuke said as he rubbed circles on Naruto’s back.

Haku knelt down beside them and looked at Zabuza and Reiko.

“Natural?” Reiko said with a frown. “There is such a thing?”

“All hybrids are based on what Naruto is,” Sasuke said with a smile. “His father is one of the tailed beasts, the big nature spirits everyone thinks are demons. Kyuubi, guess he’s this nine tailed fox guy. But he’s one of the only ones left that comes to the world anymore because they fear what we’ll do to them.”

Zabuza nodded. “It makes sense. The concept of hybridization had to come from somewhere, and there had to be a map to teach people how to make them in the lab. Are there others?”

Sasuke nodded. “I found one, in Japan, he’s confined to a shrine, to the one tailed beast, Shukaku. His name is Gaara, and from what I’ve found, he’s pretty much left alone. There may be other. If this Shukaku demon is one tail, and Kyuubi is nine tailed, there must be others in between.”

Zabuza nodded. “Makes sense. Japan is rather protective of their hybrids, if they don’t give them rights, at least they aren’t abused like Naruto and Haku have been here.”

Itachi smiled at them. “I’ll set up the next set of rooms for you, so you can be near Sasuke and Naruto. I think it would be good for Naruto to be near another hybrid that’s had a similar experience to his own.”

Itachi left and Sasuke narrowed his eyes at him with suspicion. He still didn’t trust his brother. He looked down to realize Naruto had fallen asleep on him. He smiled and pushed some of his hair out of his face.

Reiko smiled at him. “You love him, don’t you?”

Sasuke looked at her and rolled his eyes. “Why would I do something stupid like that…” he muttered but there was no bite to his voice. Reiko smiled at Zabuza.

“You know why we took to treating Haku as our own?” she asked him gently.

Sasuke looked at her and shook his head. She reached over and took Zabuza’s hand.

“We were both orphans, that’s one of the reasons we fell in love with each other. We knew what we’d each had gone through. I can tell that you have suspicions. Would you like to hear where we’ve come from? Would that help if you knew us? I’d like to see you trust us,” she said gently.

“Whatever,” Sasuke said. “Talk if you want. Doesn’t matter to me.”

Reiko smiled. “Okay, well, I guess I’ll tell you about myself. I spent a lot of time with foster parents. That’s why when we took on Haku it was so important he stay with us. I bounced around a lot, once I even had some con artists for fosters. Well, they tried to be. The woman couldn’t act to save her life, so their ‘slip and fall’ con fell rather flat. She over acted or under acted. Was really embarrassing to watch, especially when she threw a tantrum. The man was good, but she was not. She used to try and tell me that lungs were in the throat, and that’s why people died when they were choked. She also thought there were sixty two states for some reason. She couldn’t explain that no matter how many times I asked,” she said with a sigh. “Another time I found a really nice family, and they almost adopted me, but it didn’t work. They had another child who had a very aggressive cancer. They couldn’t support me and take care of him.”

Zabuza nodded. “Wasn’t much different for me,” he said with a sigh. “There were good ones and bad ones. Most were good people. Once I was one of five kids with this one really good family. But then, the mother got pregnant with triplets. It was fine until they were born, then she was just so tired all the time. She used to send me to the store when I was seven or eight to get food because she couldn’t. Me and the older kid had to leave, and we went on to another family. There were more, but both me and Reiko aged out eventually. I went to the army and she went to school for a while.”

Sasuke nodded. “I guess that explains why you’d be good parents to Haku.”

Haku looked at Sasuke. Parents? He was quiet and listened some more. “We’ve been on the run so long,” Reiko said with a sigh. “I’d love to give Haku a sibling, but…this life is no good for young ones. Until we can stop running, it won’t happen.”

“You say you are on the run, I thought you legally had Haku?” Sasuke said having looked over the files in depth.

“Yeah, but Gato doesn’t care about that. When I exposed it, we got his papers, and we got a lot of money, but that was just the legal aspect of it. It just didn’t matter to Gato. I turned on him. He wants me dead, as well as Haku,” Zabuza said with a sigh. “No one wanted to do anything because all the people were wealthy, and here, money buys everything. That’s why when you called, I came to see you. Only money will stop this, I fear.”

“I suppose Itachi is good for money,” Sasuke muttered. “He wants to use Naruto as some sort of spokesperson.”

“He told me about it,” Zabuza said with a nod.

“But I don’t want anyone to use him. He shouldn’t be used. He’s not a thing. No one should be used,” he muttered. “If Naruto wants to help, then fine. But no one is going to use him without his consent ever again.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Naruto sat curled into the sofa and watching a show on TV. He jumped when Haku sat down beside him. He gasped and looked at him. He had his mask off, though. He smiled.

“Hi,” he said to Naruto gently.

Naruto nodded. “Hi,” he responded and looked away.

“You know, it is okay to feel sad about what happened to you,” he said to him and reached out to take his hand.

Naruto let him. “I want to be happy for Master Sasuke.”

“You have to get over being sad before you can be happy, though,” Haku said with a sad smile. “So you should be able to do that. Be sad so you can become happy.”

“I’ve never been happy, not since I left Master Jiraya.”

“He was a good person?” Haku asked.

“He was. He wanted me to be safe and happy,” he said with a sigh. “Master Sasuke…sometimes I’m scared of him. But…I think he’s a good person. I think he just…doesn’t know how to show it.”

Haku nodded. “He doesn’t know what to do with feelings, does he?”

Naruto shook his head. “Neither do I.”

“What happened to you?” he asked gently.

Naruto looked at Haku and swallowed. “I went to a man who liked me because he liked little boys. He thought that if he had a hybrid that looked like a little boy, he wouldn’t do bad things. Then I went to a man that wanted to put me in the hunts, like you were in. But the demon got out. I killed them, but they couldn’t do anything because the hunts are illegal. So he sold me. Then my last one…he was really terrible. He made me…made me do things with his friends at these parties he’d throw,” he said as he bit his lip. “There were women, and men, and they would all do such things…” he whispered. “I was so humiliated so often. Then…I did something bad…and the demon got out and he sold me off, and told the people to hurt me as much as they could. Master Sasuke has been kind, though. And he doesn’t want me to do things that I don’t want to do. He even calls me a person.”

Haku smiled. “I’m glad he does that.”

“He…he took me to a doctor because I had some not good things after the boarding house,” he said and looked down. “I feel better now, and I haven’t felt better in a long time.”

Haku nodded and pulled a bag he carried up onto his lap. He pulled out a book and handed it to Naruto. “Here, this is something that you might like,” he said with a smile.

Naruto took it and glanced through it. “I…I can’t read…” he said and looked at him.

Haku smiled. “I’m sorry, I forgot. Reiko taught me to read when I moved in with them. Do you want me to teach you?”

“Can you?” Naruto asked with a wide eyed look.

“Of course,” Haku said. “Here,” he said and scooted closer to him and opened the book. “This is the title, see, _The Lost Bunny Boy_. It’s about a rabbit hybrid like me that gets lost in a forest, and this wolf hybrid finds him, tells him he’s going to eat him up, but instead they fall in love. It’s very sweet.”

Naruto smiled and touched the words. “The…Lost…Bunny…Boy…” he repeated.

Haku smiled and turned the page and started reading to him. Behind them, Zabuza and Sasuke had been watching them together.

“It’s good for him,” Zabuza said with a smile.

“Yeah,” Sasuke said. “He’s right though. I don’t know what to do. I’m no good at this stuff. I get angry and he gets scared. And then I don’t know what to do to make him understand that it isn’t him. I just…I have trouble directing my anger.”

Zabuza nodded. “Well, something tells me that given some time, that boy is going to give you a run for your money in the anger department. Once he gets some confidence and isn’t so cowed.”

“How long do you think?” Sasuke asked. “I’d like to see some fight in him, instead of him just doing what I say and agreeing with me. I’ve seen it, a few times, that spark they tried to beat out of him.”

“Just give him some time. He’s got fire in those eyes, and not from the demon. He’s something else, Sasuke Uchiha. And you’re gonna have your hands full when he starts being himself,” Zabuza said as he smirked and left him.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

By the time Tsunade had contacted those she needed to contact, she was even more sure that something was going to give this time. It seemed that Itachi Uchiha was very much serious about moving the Hybrid Rights Act forward in the United States, and bringing it closer to the Canadian model. She couldn’t help but be suspicious, though, there always seemed to be problems when people decided to “help” with hybrid rights. So it was that she was standing outside the gates to Uchiha mansion on a Monday morning. Surprisingly she was allowed entry quickly, and met at the door by Itachi Uchiha.

“Uchiha-sama,” she said with a tilt of her head.

“Itachi, please, Tsunade-san, correct? Sasuke told me about what you did for Naruto, I’m pleased to finally meet you. Please, come in,” the proper sounding man sad.

Tsunade nodded and followed him not the living area where he saw Sasuke seated sprawled on a small sofa with Naruto having fallen asleep in his lap. He was reading a book and threading finger’s through the hybrid’s hair as he slept. He noted another man and woman who were seated nearby, looking at a laptop, and a rabbit hybrid who was watching TV intently.

Sasuke looked up. “Hey, Doc,” he said with a nod.

“How’s he doing?” she asked with a smile as she came and sat down beside Naruto’s feet.

“Better, we finished all the medications, and he says that he hasn’t felt so good in a long time. I’m just mad I didn’t realize it at the start,” Sasuke said with a sigh.

Tsunade nodded and Naruto stirred, sitting up and yawning. “Master, I’m hungry,” he muttered sleepily.

“Dobe, quit calling me Master,” Sasuke muttered. “Look, Doc came to see you.”

Naruto’s head snapped around and he scrambled away from Tsunade and into Sasuke’s lap. “You aren’t going to look at…at stuff…again are you?” he asked, clutching Sasuke desperately.

She shook her head. “No, I came to discuss some of the Hybrid Rights things with Itachi. But if you aren’t feeling all better…” she said with an arch of her brow.

“No! I’m fine! I don’t need you to look at the stuff there again!” he yelped and then hid his face in Sasuke’s chest.

Sasuke sighed in exasperation, but this time he just patted his back. “Well, good luck. Maybe you can help him with his ideas. I’m more interested in just helping Naruto get back to normal. Well, not hybrid normal, human normal,” he muttered and to Naruto’s shock, he leaned forward and kissed the top of his head.

Naruto blushed even harder and clung a little tighter to his Master. He would always be his master now, no matter what happened.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Sir, the papers are ready. You sure this is what you wanna do, boss?” Kisame asked as he handed them to Orochimaru to look at.

He smiled. “Of course,” he said and signed them. It was a writ of legal demand for release of property. The Kitsune would be his by this time next week. He laughed and a hissing sound came from him as he handed the papers back to Kisame and leaned back in his seat. Yes, he would have the power, even if he had to beat the Kitsune nearly to death to get it…


End file.
